Help Me With My Pain

A Conversation
With The Voice Of Pain

Summer 2004

My purpose for writing this column is twofold:

1. To provide education about how our body works and how it responds to injury or other disease processes. With a clear image of our inner workings, we can use tools to reduce our pain throughout the day.


2. To suggest specific tools having the potential to reduce the sensation of pain. In previous articles, you have been given tools. I hope you have used them and I hope they have helped. As soon as our pain begins to build up, we now have options.


1. Stop, rest and focus on a gentle breath cycle. Within a short time our muscles will relax and the pain will lessen. In the end we will feel more energetic. Why? Pain robs us of energy.


2. Pain impacts all aspects of our bodies. One of the first things we do when we hurt, is to shorten our inhale and our exhale. This holding pattern creates even greater physical tension, and thus more pain. The breath is an attractor to tense muscles. Therefor, as you give yourself 10-15 minutes to breathe gently, the muscles progressively soften, the pain lessens and once again our energy returns.


3. Regaining flexibility and reducing pain can be accomplished through yoga. This was described in depth in my last article. There will always be those days when we cannot figure out which tool to use or we cannot anticipate what our bodies need right now. Today we have a special tool called "stream of consciousness writing".

We know that the body has a voice. In fact, the voice of pain is the loudest voice inside our heads. Did you know that you could have a direct conversation with your body? You can ask your body what it needs from you.

THE TOOL
Stream of consciousness writing requires the following:

Begin to write without stopping. Do not punctuate or cross your T's. Write whatever comes, even if it doesn't make any sense at the time. If you cannot think what to say, you can write your initial question or gibberish. The rule is: do not stop writing until the timer goes off.

The reason this tool works so well is, we are not inviting the mind to participate. The answers will come from the subconscious mind. This is a very revealing process. Please try this tool at least once.

Less Pain and More Flexibility Through Yoga

Winter 2003

Energy fuels our muscles, allowing us to move. We move slowly and with effort when our energy is low, and more easily with ample energy. Pain alone can lower our source of energy.

When energy in the muscles is blocked, poor circulation and pain result. The muscle energy becomes sluggish, as if we were driving down a three-lane freeway that suddenly merges into a single lane. This detour of energy can lead to more pain and sometimes the sensation of coldness.

Yoga is an extremely effective way to move congested muscle energy with the benefits happening over time. For those in pain, yoga cannot be approached as the able-bodied person would. We are able-bodied too, but we have pain that must be honored and respected. For example, instead of going into a stretch, we move slowly, until we feel the slightest bit of resistance to the movement. We stay behind the sensation of additional pain. We already have pain; there is no value in feeling more.

In this article, we will learn the spinal twist or spinal rotation, since the spine tends to stiffen after an injury or with chronic pain. Begin this exercise in a relaxed, sitting posture, in a chair or on the floor.

Whether on the floor or in a chair, remain upright and twist by looking over your shoulder and rotating in the same direction. Test your mobility in each direction. Begin moving in the direction where you felt the greatest range. We call this, moving in the direction of ease. When you move in the direction of ease, it helps the opposite direction to open.

When you feel a slight resistance, stop, hold the posture and take 3 to 4 gentle breaths. The breath opens, softens and helps lengthen the muscles and soft tissue, creating an exit point for blocked energy. The next time you’ll be able to rotate your spine further. Repeat this process in each direction just two times.

Next, warm up the spine by shifting your weight in all directions. This immediately increases circulation to the spine and surrounding areas. Check your range of motion again. You may notice that even now, you can rotate further.

In the beginning, 10-15 minutes of yoga per day, with rest periods between each repetition, is an excellent start. As you feel the benefits of less pain and more energy, you may find yourself naturally doing yoga for longer periods.

What is Pain and Can I Do Anything to Relieve it?

September 2003

Stop and take a breath in between "doing," since most of us use "doing" to mask the pain. When we take a moment or two along with 3 gentle inhales and exhales, we will notice that our bodies are filled with sensation.

Pain is the sensation that speaks with the loudest voice, which Echart Tolle describes in his book, The Power of Now, a required reading for level I, II, & III Meditation groups (see class offerings for dates and times). The Pain Body is where we store negative messages from the past, as well as, doubts and fears about the future. The greater the intensity of the pain, the louder the body's voice becomes. Beyond all else, pain is a communication from our bodies to us.

When we do not listen, the pain becomes like the six-year old child, following us from room to room, as its internal voice becomes louder and louder. If we continue to ignore this internal communicator, it becomes like a household of one-year old children screaming at the top of their lungs, with full body rigidity. We cannot ignore the pain much longer, for with each scream, the pain increases.

When we become acutely aware of our pain, it will tell us clearly that it needs our full attention. As we continue to listen, the Pain Body will tell us exactly what type of help it needs to reduce the sensation we call pain.

Pain is due to parts of the skeleton that at this time cannot move. Pain also represents shortened muscle and tissue that get in the way of skeletal range of motion. These points of physical sensation have a direct impact on the energy moving through our bodies. Energy may be blocked, congested or diverted around the pain.

The cardinal rule of all the tools I share is to never move in your pain. Always stay behind the very first signal. We cannot reduce our pain level by experiencing more pain.

STOP what you are currently doing. Sit down or lay down in your most comfortable position. Tune into your breathing pattern. For 15 minutes, inhale at a comfortable depth for you. Allow the lungs to determine the timing of each inhale. As the lungs dispel the exhale, most importantly, allow your exhale to leave your body softly. This means, giving up control of your exhale, without limiting it or trying to change it, in any way that you are now breathing.

My experience is that the breath is attracted to the pain and the pain is attracted to the breath. Consequently, it is important to eliminate all mental pictures of pain you experienced in the past, or pain that you fear you may experience in the future. Pain only lives in present time reality, which gives it smaller boundaries and makes our pain smaller.

(Regi Boehme was a clinician, consultant, and teacher at Orlanu Therapies. Please call our office and visit our website for suggestions to reduce your sensation of pain.)

Breathe Your Pain Away

Autumn 2003

Chronic Pain has a direct impact on all aspects of our bodies.

The reactions I describe in this article are initially unconscious. After reading about the reactions to our pain, our awareness will be increased and we will find successful ways to reduce our pain. However, first it's important to understand our reactions to pain.

1. First it changes our breath. We tend to shorten either the inhale, the exhale, or both. Our exhale, or "out-breath", and inhale, or "in-breath", may become out of balance with each other. As we identify this imbalance in our breath, we must stop and refocus on either the exhale or the inhale. For the inhale, stop taking breaths temporarily. We do not hold our breaths, but rather, simply wait for our body to take its breath, naturally.

   On the next exhale, we focus on just letting the breath naturally leave our body.

   Then, imagine the breath flowing down your spine. Let each exhale fall completely and easily, like clear blue water, down through the top of our head, down our spine to our sacrum (base of our spine), before our next breath. This will help us to feel grounded and less panicked by the pain. Either of these techniques will give you enough space and time to avoid a mental response to your pain.



2. Next, we naturally use some holding pattern in our body that mirrors the holding patterns of our breath. These, too, are reactions that are not consciously under our mental control.

   We may, subtly, lift and tighten the muscles of our shoulders, along with the muscles of our neck that are attached to our shoulders. This initial subtle reaction may become stronger in response to our pain level, subsequently increasing our pain level another notch. Some of us may clench our jaws or tighten the muscles of our low back.

   The critical factor about this chain of events is that it begins with our breathing pattern and, thus, we can begin to change it by just catching ourselves in the middle of the series of events. We can create a shift breath into a more, useful, less global pattern. Breaking this pattern begins with conscious recognition.



3. Can we change this reaction to pain? Yes, quite easily, in fact.

   First and foremost, we must become aware of the current imbalance in our breathing pattern. This imbalance will feel like it's hard to breathe. Mentally there is a feeling of panic because its harder to take a deep breath. As we identify this imbalance in our breath, we must stop, refocus and simply, wait for our body to take its next breath, naturally. It is important not to struggle with correcting our breathing pattern. Allowing the breath to come at its own time will correct the imbalance effortlessly.

   As we allow our in breath and our out breath to happen naturally, the muscles respond by softening. The breath is attracted to tense muscles, just as tense muscles are attracted to our breath as it softens.

4. This is not a time to add a physical exercise. Breaking an unconscious pattern and making it a conscious one is challenging enough. Changing this full body response to pain can be done the moment we become aware of it, whether we are doing household duties, caring for our children, working at our computer, or living our lives actively and fully.


5. If you can, buy yourself a journal. This is a monthly article and we'll use it often in our work together. This month's suggestion is to write down the time and date each time you become aware of your unconscious pattern. The moment you become aware of this pattern, it will happen less and less frequently. You have one month to break a long-standing fully body response to pain. If you need support you can contact Orlanu as soon as possible.