New science has found some amazing information:
Pain is not purely physical, it’s an experience that’s reflective of what’s going on in your body and your mind.
Pain is not always where you feel it, but in the brain and nervous system – even when the pain is triggered by tissue damage. The pain response doesn’t come from the tissue itself, but from the nervous system which receives input from pain receptors in the tissue of our body called nociceptors. The brain then decides how much pain to produce.
The nervous system responds to pain differently over time. The brain and nervous system learn how to respond to various stresses through experiences – your thoughts, fears, and feelings.
Pain is one of the mechanisms that the brain uses to keep you safe; the purpose of pain is to protect you, in much the same way that we're protected by the fight or flight response or an immune response.
However, the nervous system has often programmed itself to a hypersensitive, overprotective setting. This means that it produces increased painful responses to normal stresses and stimuli over time. People living with chronic pain know this only too well.
Living with chronic pain can be debilitating, making day-to-day life difficult and affecting every aspect of a person’s life – from looking after themselves, to building and maintaining relationships, to having a career, and more.
Thankfully, there is something we can do about it!
The brain and nervous system can always be reprogrammed. Neuroscience research shows it is possible to decrease how frequently or intensely your nervous system triggers a pain response, reversing the hypersensitivity.
We can learn cognitive behavioural and psychological techniques to calm down the brain response when you get a flare up – “reduce the catastrophising”, as it were. The important first step is to recognise your emotions and understand them.
My 3-day Lightning Process Programme will teach you techniques based on awareness, movement, and personal life coaching to change how your body deals with stressful emotions that can cause flare ups, so that they have reduced negative impacts on your mind and body.
Book a place on the programme here, and start your journey towards wellbeing today!
