up:: Chronic Pain MOC tags:: #output/youtube☑️#pain rank:: 1
Outputs: - output::#output/youtube☑️ 2022-11-15 - How you can get stuck in pain - YouTube - output::#output/medium 2022-11-15 - If you are injured, you need to remember how amazing your body is | by Javier Luis Gomez | Oct, 2022 | Medium
Pain is a brain issue- not a body issue
Hello, And thank you for being here today.
If you’re here, you may be struggling with an injury or pain in your body. That is keeping you from being active or doing the things you want to do.
I know how frustrating and debilitating this can be. I’ve been there myself. But I’m here to tell you that you can do something about it.
There are ways to get relief from your pain and get your life back. I’m not going to promise you that it will be easy. But I can promise you that it will be worth it.
And while we can’t make it better 5 videos, we can begin a journey to think about what getting better looks like.
I’m here to help you every step of the way. So please, don’t hesitate to reach out if you need anything.
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I want to start by saying that you have the amazing ability to recover.
It may seem hard to believe right now. But the body’s ability to recover is already a part of you. It is wired in your DNA. We evolved to recover from injuries. This is necessary if we were to survive.
You might ask, so what happened?
Why does it still feel injured even though my body has this ability to bounce back?
How did I get stuck?
And while this is not a simple question to answer, let’s start by looking at one place - the mind.
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Whenever we experience pain, get hurt or injured. Our brain remembers that pain and where it came from- and it does it to protect you!
This is useful, and good for you.
Especially if you think about our early ancestors and how they had to make sense of the world.
If you’re out in the jungle hunting for wild animals, and you touch some poison ivy and it becomes itchy and painful.
The memory of that pain is there to make sure that you never touch it again! Your mind will remember that pain so that you don’t make that mistake again.
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The same thing happens when you injure your body.
Imagine that you’re going for a run, and your ankle starts feeling painful. You get it checked, and the doctor tells you it’s a sprain. He gives you some medicine, and tells you to rest and stretch it for 2 weeks.
When your body recovers, your mind still remembers-
“Oh when I did that run, I hurt my ankle- so I should avoid running because it’s dangerous.”
That’s your mind trying to protect you!
The problem comes in when our bodies have , but our mind is still in pain and high alert mode
We want to find that sweet spot for you.
Because too much fear, too much worry can keep you from doing anything. After all, one way to never get injured is to sit on the couch and never move again! But that’s not what you want.
So you don’t want to suppress your fear, go out and be completely reckless. That’s not the right way to go about it also.
You have to find that goldilocks area- and to do that you need to deal with the fear in your mind.
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And the first thing I want to dispel from your fear is that your body is beyond repair
We still have this old idea that movement and our bodies are like cars and machines. That if there is pain it’s because something is out of alignment or something is out of place.
Then we end up believing that if there’s pain that won’t go away, then something must be out of place in my body.
But that is an outdated model and is too simple.
It’s funny to say, but remember your body is a living, breathing, adapting, and growing thing. You are not some car that gets more and more broken down as time passes.
Your body is adaptable. It can change and adjust depending on all sorts of situations that you experience.
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And when you look at the human body and how it has evolved, it is clear that we were meant to move.
We have long legs and arms that are perfect for walking and running. We also have strong muscles that allow us to carry heavy objects.
For millions of years, we were hunter-gatherers who walked long distances and carried things to find food and shelter.
But today, most of us live very different lives. We don’t have to walk long distances to find food. And we don’t have to carry heavy loads. Instead, we sit in cars and offices all day. We don’t use our muscles very much and we don’t get the chance to move around a lot.
So, it’s important to remember what our bodies evolved to do.
Trust me, you’re not going to undo thousands of years of evolution by getting injured that one time
Your body can bounce back- and you have to bring your mind into that journey also
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The second thing to dispel is the belief that you’ve made irreversible damage to your body.
Most people believe that once they injure their body, it’s irreversible. They think it will never be 100% again.
But the truth is, most injuries recover well. And our bodies adapt to the injuries that take place.
Yes, there are some serious injuries that are the exception. But for the most part, I’d say 99% of injuries recover well.
I see this the most with food and diet. You believe that if you’ve been eating unhealthy foods for years, you’ll never be 100% healthy. But the truth is, regular healthy eating can reverse most of that.
If you’ve been living a sedentary lifestyle for many years, a few months of exercise will reverse a lot of that.
So, if you’re worried that you’ve gone too far, don’t be. You can always make changes to get your body back on track.
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The third fear that I want to dispel is that it’s too late to get back into action for me.
Does it feel like you’ve been meaning to get better, but then you put it off. Until you feel so far behind that you can’t catch up.
You’re not alone, many people feel this way. I have been there myself also.
It is easy to get stuck in thinking about how great my body used to be before I got injured. And it takes some mental work to move past that and start looking forward to how your body can be in the future.
And to do that, you have to dispel the believe that it’s too let to get back. There are plenty of people who put of recovery, started late, but are now moving well and worry-free.
So, if you’re feeling like it’s too late for you to recover, don’t worry. It’s never too late to start working on it.
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Finally, I want to add that getting back from injury is 20% inspiration and 80% practice.
I hope with this series, you get that inspiration you need to trust your body again
And then I hope you find ways to put that inspiration into practice
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