.png)
There's nothing worse than the onset of pain unexpectedly (or expectedly, let's be honest). However, fearing pain, including the onset of it, can actually make the sensation worse.
This is because anxiety and stress can cause the body to release stress hormones, like cortisol and adrenaline, which can increase sensitivity to pain and heighten the overall sensation of discomfort.
Additionally, when we are anxious about experiencing pain, we may tense up or develop negative thought patterns that can worsen our perception of it.
An absolutely fundamental way to ease any fears about our pain is acknowledging the power we have in managing it. While it isn't always perfect, we possess a great amount of internal strength to help dampen the pain we're experiencing or eliminate it altogether.
Below are a few different techniques and tools that you can incorporate into your day to assure yourself that even if pain does strike, you can stop it dead in its tracks.
Physiological Sigh Technique
The Physiological Sigh Technique was developed by Dr Andrew Huberman and his colleagues at Stanford University. This type of deep breathing stimulates the activation of neurons that are responsible for sighing.
These neurons reset your natural breathing cycle by triggering you to sigh. Sighing restores oxygen and carbon dioxide levels, stretches the respiratory muscles and reduces muscle tension in the body — which makes you feel more relaxed and at ease. That’s why sighing can be such a nice release.
It’s an easy and super effective tool to instantly calm your nervous system during a nasty pain flare-up, stressful situation, or to just tune into the body during the day.
To almost instantly regulate your nervous system during a pain flare-up:
Take a long inhale in through your nose, until your lungs and belly are almost full of air
Then inhale again quickly, until the lungs are full
Finish with a long, slow exhale through your mouth. Repeat three to five times.
Be sure to focus on your breath the whole time to draw attention away from the pain, thereby ensuring more effective pain relief.
Slowing Down Your Pace
When we rush anything we do in life — whether that be brushing our teeth, making breakfast or walking down the street — we’re unconsciously priming our body for a threat, causing it to slip into fight or flight.
When you are in a high-stress situation, your body prepares for action by releasing adrenaline and cortisol, which can cause your heart rate and breathing to increase. However, your brain doesn't know the difference between a 'real' high-stress situation, or one that is perceived.
As such, any major moment of frustration or rushing can set this response off — and your pain.
This most commonly happens to fast walkers who are caught behind someone moving slowly. The person in front of you is just mindfully taking life at their own pace, while your frustration to get moving is driving intense muscle contractions, an increased heart rate and shallow breathing — all below your conscious awareness.
Slowing down your pace while walking or doing activities can help you take deeper, more controlled breaths, which can signal to your body that there is no longer an immediate threat and help calm your nervous system.
This can help to reduce the levels of stress hormones in your body and prevent the fight or flight response from continuing.
Additionally, slowing down and taking time to focus on the current task can help to reduce feelings of anxiety and enhance your sense of control.
Just give pay attention to how you're feeling in these moments, especially if you're rushing. It's incredible to witness the body's response to protect you.
Finding Places of Safety in the Body
Finding places of safety in the body can have a positive impact on pain levels because it can activate the body's relaxation response. It can be a powerful tool for managing pain and promoting calmness and well-being.
When we are in pain, especially during a bad flare-up that catches us off guard, it can activate our sympathetic nervous system, which is responsible for the fight or flight response. This can heighten our levels of stress, tension, and of course, pain. A vicious cycle indeed.
One technique to counteract this response is to find and focus on areas in the body where we feel safe and comfortable. These areas might be places where we feel warmth, comfort, or a sense of ease. Or just anywhere we know pain doesn't exist.
The hands and feet, in particular, are excellent anchor points since these body parts are our main physical contacts with the outside world. Tuning into them allows the mind to remove focus from areas of pain, and reminds the brain of what safety and ease feels like.
By directing our attention to these areas, we can activate our parasympathetic nervous system, which is responsible for the rest and digest response.
This can counteract the stress response and help to reduce pain, tension, and discomfort. Thank goodness.
Gratitude: Remembering Your Glimmers
Gratitude is an essential practice that can help in times of crisis and with your overall pain relief efforts.
When we express gratitude, we focus on what we have rather than what we lack. It helps us shift our perspective from a negative view of the situation to a more positive one. Remember: our brain is primed for negative thinking and threat perception. These types of thoughts kept us safe for millennia. This is why we need to make a conscious effort to rewire these thought patterns that can contribute to our pain.
Research also shows that gratitude is an absolutely fundamental strategy to help minimise pain over the course of your journey.
Additionally, gratitude has been shown to have a positive impact on mental health and well-being. It can reduce stress, increase feelings of happiness and contentment, and improve overall mental resilience, which is crucial during times of crisis, such as an endo pain flare-up.
Therefore, instituting a gratitude practice can have a significantly positive impact on pain relief efforts. It's also essential for identifying your SIMs (safety in me), which will help to counteract any DIMs (danger in me).
The best way to practise gratitude is to start by recognising and appreciating the small moments of beauty in life — commonly referred to as glimmers (aka SIMs): the fresh cup of tea or coffee you're drinking; a hot bath; quiet moment of solitude; the way the sun hits the tree; the new flower growing in your garden etc.
Be sure to institute a daily or semi-daily gratitude practice to ensure you're effectively rewiring your brain's perception. You can start by journaling on your phone or in a notebook. Begin by listing all of the good things that happened to you that day — or things that you're grateful for.
It also helps to note the best moment of your days, which can assist you in identifying your SIMs more easily. Even if you can't actively document your glimmers during the day, taking a moment to acknowledge them goes a long way.
Any experience of a DIM that can lead to our brain's threat response (e.g., an aggressive email from a co-worker; rude comment; stressful day) can be more easily managed when we quickly counter these moments with our SIMs. And if we immediately know what our SIMs are by practising gratitude, you'll have that pesky threat response turned off in no time.
Remember: your body and brain's pain response will be reduced significantly the more you practise it. Get writing!
Know That There's Hope
Overall, it's important to approach our pain management with an open mind and take proactive steps to manage our anxiety and stress levels.
Mindfulness techniques, deep breathing exercises, and relaxation techniques can help to calm both the mind and body, thereby reducing our sensitivity to pain and eliminating it altogether.
Commitment is everything on this journey to pain relief. Like anything in life, the more you practise it, the better you'll become.
You've got this, warrior.
Comentários