On Pain and Hope.

Most of us experience some degree of pain in our bodies - whether it’s an annoying headache, nagging arthritis, burning neuropathy, acute or chronic injuries, or disease-related. And make no mistake, emotional and mental pain are not at the bottom of the list here in severity and are critical to address.

And so many of us hide our suffering and stoically push through to get through our days without wanting to call much attention to it. If you’re in that web of difficult energy, stand-up, give yourself some love and know - right here and now - that you can feel better.

Sometimes its mild and other times, downright incapacitating. I’ll tell you right now-I feel you. I’ve been there and oftentimes still am. And it’s hard to be full of life when you’re full of pain. Whether it’s an acute or chronic situation, it can be depressing to deal with if left unresolved.

Let’s do a deep dive here before we get to some solutions. The best way to eliminate pain is to better understand it. You know how they say that when you stare a beast in the face it will back down? There’s some wisdom to that, I think.

Pain can become a whole biopychosocial syndrome that affects all areas of our lives. That’s right. Our biology, our psychology and our sociability. After all, our minds, bodies and spirits are inseparable and if we have physical pain, we are also impacted mentally and emotionally and vice-versa.

Have you ever noticed our tendencies to stagnate around pain when its really bad? Meaning, we stop moving. We sit more if our knees, feet and back hurt. We walk less. We socialize less often. We lie down with and acute headache/neck/back pain.

Rest is good and necessary. I’ll say that again. Rest is so important. But too much inactivity sends very strong signals to our bodies to shut down, freeze up and over time -everything can feel sludgy and dense. Soon, we don’t recognize ourselves anymore and begin to mourn for the vitality we once had and for the well-being we can hardly remember.

If our body is hurting, it wants to be heard. Many of us ignore the cues. And understandably, we try to cover pain by diversion and distraction, fleeing from it, rather than becoming present, mindful and tuning into our very basic needs.

Pharmaceuticals, alcohol, food-binging, excessive shopping and television don’t cure or manage pain to well.

It’s a difficult thing to navigate and there isn’t often a quick fix. Though there could be. Pain is a process that develops over time and it takes time and effort to unravel.

Inflammation is a primary cause of pain. Inflamed tissues, organs, joints, emotions and mental states. But its not something we have to settle for or worse, succumb to. That’s where staring the beast in the face comes in.

Each blog post here will look at a problem and then offer simple solutions to explore. Since we’re all highly bioindividual, what works for one might not work for another - there’s no one size fits all in health approaches.

That said, these are easy and pretty much a sure thing.

A simple tip for the complex problem of pain involves movement.

Move what hurts, Gently, systematically, mindfully - with no goals.

Turn your neck slowly from side to side if it feels stuck - breathing into the pain and consciously trying to release the hardened muscles. Listen to what’s happening in there while you’re at it. is it grisly, crackly, painful, dizzy-producing? Stay with those sensations and work with them. If fear or aversion to the situation arises. listen to that, as well and stare the beast in the eye.

To DO:

Get down onto the floor. Every day. Even if you have to lower yourself down carefully with a crane. Most of us can do it. Two or three times a day. Crawl like a baby. Across the room and back on all fours. Get yourself knee pads if you need. Be like a slow turtle, an exuberant baby or your fav animal. Become your cat or your dog or your child. It will delight them!

Explore long-limbed, drawn out sliding crawls sinking your belly towards the floor - and shorter, faster crawls. Maybe slide down to your side while crawling and roll onto your back and rock.

There’s something child-like, memory-evoking and playful in this practice. Feeling foolish? That’s good. You might feel like smiling or giggling. Make a little noise while you’re crawling - a song, a hum or a groan.

The human body is designed to move! We have over 600 muscles, over 4000 tendons and about 9000 ligaments. 78 or so organs. Bones, blood, lymph and more. The primary pump for our lymphatic system, which removes waste from our bodies is… physical movement. Our hearts pump our blood through a vast network of veins, arteries and capillaries, every second of the day for our entire loves. Remember to help it our a little bit.

I hope you can see how important it is to move and lubricate all of these systems and breathe hope into their potential flexibility. Hope is some of the most powerful medicine out there.

Drink water, eat lots of fruit and vegetables and move. As if your life depended on it.

Because it does.

And crawl and sing with reckless abandon.

xo,

Nikki