Your Mindset and Becoming Pain Free

I have written many articles about how what you think and what you believe and your mindset will determine whether you become pain free or not. ​

I wrote the now famous article "The 3 things you must do to be pain free for life" in 2004 and the first of the 3 things you must change is: your mind or mindset. This starts with moving away from the "what's wrong with me?" questions to "what's my body trying to tell me?" Moving beyond thinking "my back hurts because I have a herniated disc" to thinking about "why did the disc herniate?" ​

The first article I wrote for this blog is called "How what you believe influences your chronic pain outcomes." It talks about how science has shown that not only is there both a placebo effect and a nocebo effect, but how positive or negative emotions have concrete effects on what we do or don't do about pain that are really the reason why pain either becomes chronic or goes away and we live a pain free life. 

In the video below, the first question Pete Egoscue, founder of the Egoscue Method of Postural Alignment Therapy, asks Steven, who has been suffering with chronic pain for years and is using Egoscue to eliminate it, is "has the fear of the pain left you yet?"

​Fear is something that is overtaking our society. People are becoming afraid of everything: terrorist attacks, government corruption, aging, going broke, the economy, big government, Muslins, immigrants, taxes, carbohydrates, fat, food born illnesses, lawsuits, marriage, natural disasters, immunizations, GMOs...the list goes on and on. But it turns out many of these fears are completely ungrounded.

We are much more likely to die of a lightning strike than by a terrorist. Even though natural disasters make headline news almost weekly, you are over 13 times less likely to die from a natural disaster today than in 1900. Immigrants (illegal and legal) are much less likely to commit violent and non-violent crime than native Americans. If we didn't let media and fear-mongers influence us we'd be more afraid of the incoming rain storm than a terrorist attack and more afraid or your American born-and-raised neighbor than the illegal immigrant down the street. 

Studies have shown fear is the enemy of reason. Not good if you actually want to address an issue in front of you. I previously wrote about how changing our definition of fear is a good starting point. It will allow us to keep moving forward and not freeze in our tracks. Sometimes a simple misunderstanding is responsible all our chronic pain. 

​Going back to the video below, where Pete asks Steven, "has the fear of the pain left you yet?" Steven answers, "yes", which means he is well on his way to becoming pain free. 

Watch the video below and think about yourself and how you view your pain and your body.

• Are you afraid of the pain and do you believe your body is flawed and fragile? Have you given up hope and resigned yourself to a life of chronic pain? 

     Or...

• Have you stopped fearing the pain and instead started to question it: What is my body trying to tell me? What can I do to restore my lost function? And have you decided pain is temporary and has nothing to do with your genetics and everything to do with how you're using your body?

Feel free to comment below with your thoughts and questions or contact me by email (matt@oregonexercisetherapy.com) or phone (971-279-2189) and I'd be happy to listen, talk, or help. 

Related articles/videos:
Becoming Pain Free past episodes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6.
Fear - creating a new definition
3 things you must do to be pain free for life
How what you believe influences your chronic pain outcomes
Could a simple misunderstanding really cause all my pain?