Changing Your Experience of Pain
This blog is part-two of a four-part series this month, discussing the effects that mindfulness, yoga and physical therapy can have on decreasing the suffering involved in chronic pain. If you scroll to the end, you'll find a simple guided meditation to support you in dealing with physical discomfort.
In last week's email, my colleague and friend, Katey Blumenthal and I shared a snippet about the science of pain, and this week, we'll be talking a bit more about our relationship to pain and its effect on our suffering.
***If you know someone who experiences chronic pain, please forward this email. Or if you'd prefer, reply with their email and I'd be happy to reach out to them.
From Katey....
In physical therapy training we're told not to show patients their imaging, because it can incite fear. Patients see arthritis on their lumbar x-ray, and, the experts say, focus on it as a fixed, unchanging problem that will haunt them and impede their progress.
I disagree.
Of course, without context, an image can incite fear. Without context, pain can incite fear as well. The beast is not the fear; it's the unknown.
What if this patient knew that, in rigorous research, over 70% of people in their age group have the same arthritic imaging findings, but were able to be asymptomatic?
As clinicians it's our duty to educate our patients to understand their pathology and to guide them through their relationship with it. It's our job to provide hope that despite the pain experiences in life, we can reduce suffering by managing our responses to that pain, and our relationship with it. This is the beautiful intersection of mindfulness, yoga, and physical therapy that we will explore in this course.
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To follow up on what Katey is saying, I'll point to the Buddhist parable of the two arrows using myself as an example. The teaching goes that there are two arrows. The first arrow, is an event that causes pain or discomfort (emotional or physical) and the second arrow is our response to that event.
Using myself as an example, many of you know that I've had not one, but two frozen shoulders over the last 5 years. The first arrow was the shoulder. It was quite painful and had a huge impact on my functional movement, activities, sleep, etc. And of course, the discomfort itself caused both physical and emotional tension. But much of the "tension" was not from the actual shoulder. Some yes, but not all. In fact, most of the tension came from my thoughts about the shoulder. Sometimes, those thoughts included anger and frustration - the typical, why me story - why now, when I'm seemingly taking great care of myself? And when I was lost in those stories, the pain and suffering increased. But other times, I was able to explore the physical sensations with curiosity instead of judgement or frustration and when I could do that, the tension decreased, as did my suffering.
In other words, while we may not have control over the first arrow, we can develop agency over the second. And that can change our relationship to the pain and even the pain itself.
In our upcoming course, we'll explore techniques to work on this.
We'll be sharing more over the month of January but if you know you're ready to change your relationship to pain, registration is now open.
Depower Your Pain With The Best of Mindfulness, Yoga, and Physical Therapy
In-person only, Wednesday, February 5, 12, 19 & 26, 9:30-11am (MST)
In the 9th and 9th area
If I can answer any questions, don't hesitate to reach out.
And if you know someone who might benefit from the February course, please forward the info to them.
Sending so much love your way.
Rachel
Other ways you can work with me...
If you want some support starting or recharging your yoga and meditation practice, join the Your Yoga community! Register here to start your free 7-day trial.
If you'd like to work with me one-on-one, I have a few spots available. Reply to this email if you'd like to chat about whether this is the right time and fit for you.
And you can find all of my online workshops and courses here.