Almost every new client I talk to will hear me say, "You are bent, not broken." 

Why? Because think of how it changes your thinking. If something is broken, it needs to be fixed, repaired, replaced, or if it can't be fixed, you have to live with the broken thing forever. In contrast, if something is bent, all that has to be done is to bend it back a little. 

When a client contacts me for a free posture evaluation, they almost always have chronic pain that is getting in the way of their life and often have been given some kind of diagnosis: arthritis, stenosis, herniated disc, tendonitis, bursitis, torn ligament, meniscus tear, etc. The client thinks they are broken and the medical system has reinforced this thinking and has often told them the only way to get better is to have surgery to fix the broken piece. The client is feeling hopeless and doomed to a life of pain. 

The problem with this thinking is that often the arthritis, stenosis, or herniated disc isn't the cause of the pain the client is experiencing. The arthritis, stenosis, or herniated disc is a symptom they are experiencing just like the pain is a symptom they are experiencing. 

The question we have to ask is: what is causing the pain and the arthritis, stenosis, or herniated disc? 

The answer to that question is: your posture. Your posture is bent. You are bent not broken. 

And you can bend your posture back into better alignment and when you do your pain will go away and your body can heal itself. That's what I do as a Posture Alignment Therapist - help people bend their bodies back into better alignment. 

When you understand that you are bent and not broken, you believe you can and will get better and that's the key to it all. You must believe. 

This is part 2 of Understanding Human Psychology and Chronic Pain. Part 1, talked about the 4 classes of experiences and how engaging in less class 3 and 4 experiences and more 1 and 2 experiences will have a very positive impact on our health. 

Part 2 is going to explain how everything we do in life is driven by the 6 Human Needs and how we can choose positive or negative ways to meet these needs which will determine whether they are an empowering or destructive force in our lives and on our physical health. After introducing the 6 human needs we will examine how these needs play into chronic pain and whether people are able to become pain free again. 

What are you imagining? If you are the typical person in pain, you are imagining the pain getting worse, limiting your ability to work, play (you might have already forgot what that is), and enjoy your life. You are imagining having to get that surgery you have been trying to avoid and imagining having the long hard recovery that you heard people have to go through to get better. You are imagining that your health will continue to get worse because of course you’re getting older and that’s what happens.
 
But what if you chose to imagine something different? What if you chose to imagine your pain decreasing and going away? What if you chose to imagine being able to get well without needing surgery? What if you chose to imagine being able to resume a pain free and active life full of joy? What if you chose to then help others imagine the same for them?
 
If Albert Einstein is right (and he usually is), then what you choose to imagine right now, and each moment from now on, is what you are going to experience. So the question is: What do you chose to imagine?

For help imagining a pain free and active life, contact me for a free posture evaluation and consultation and I'll help you understand what you need to do to achieve your goal of living pain free and enjoying peace of mind. 

To truly understand why someone has chronic pain and why they are not enjoying better health, and to help them achieve a pain free active life and enjoy peace of mind, we must understand their psychology along with their physiology. Only addressing someone's physiology and ignoring their psychology is often why people lose 30 pounds only to gain it back 6 months later, or go in and out of episodes of back pain, or have repeated surgeries for chronic pain. 

We all want to be flexible. Flexibility is beautiful. Flexibility helps with injury prevention. Flexibility improves performance. People who have flexibility are graceful, fluid, and effortless in their movements. 

How can you make this your best year yet? 

I have 10 things you can do that I believe will help you make this your best year yet. ​

Nature designed a beautiful and fool-proof way for newborn infants to develop into strong and capable children and then adults. A newborn human baby goes from completely helpless to walking in the first year of life because of this beautiful process. During the first year of life, this process involves 10 sequential yet overlapping phases of physical development which I discussed here. When this process happens as nature intended it, we get healthy, strong, and happy toddlers. 

There are however 10 things that can hijack your baby's physical development which can mean your baby is not as healthy, happy, or strong as they could be. When this development is hijacked, your child might be more susceptible to injury, obesity, and chronic pain throughout life. 

As humans, there are certain things we need for survival (food, water, shelter) and there are other things we need to thrive and be healthy. One very important thing we all need if we are to maintain good health and be happy is community. 

Community is a unified group of individuals, brought together by common location, history, characteristics, circumstance, interests, or goals. 

Humans are social beings and we need to feel love and connection to other human beings. A community give us support, encouragement, love, and a sense of belonging. This gives us the very important messages that:

• you are not alone
• you belong
• things will get better

Yes, you read the title of this blog article correctly. As miserable as chronic pain can be physically, mentally, emotionally, socially, and in every other way, I believe there are some very important things you can be thankful for when you're in chronic pain. 

When you stop fighting chronic pain and make peace with it, listen to it, and use it for the reason it's there, everything gets better. If you are in chronic pain, as painful as it can be, stop for a minute and be thankful that your body is talking to you, your body has the ability to heal itself, and you are in charge of that process.