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Let me introduce you to my friend � oh I see you've met? Pain in the butt, pain in
the neck, no pain no gain. You know its never too late to start getting healthy and correcting
your posture but you mustn't leave it for even one more day; you mustn't wait for the
pain to begin. Over the next 3 weeks if you only take away 1 thing from this course, I
hope that it is that you learn to trust your body. Trust that your body can heal itself.
I know how some of you think: I'll wait until I need help and by 'needing help' you mean
when the symptoms and pain get so bad, you can't take it any more. Don't worry if that
is the place you are at now- that is where I began too. Some people have the mistaken
idea that people like me are born clean-living and healthy but the truth is that I have achieved
ideal posture as the only sustainable solution to my own health problems.
If you are ever to successfully heal your posture then you need to make friends with
your pain. When I was explaining pain to a friend one day, I explained that arm pain
for example, isn't in the arm. I got an expression that basically said, 'yeah right'. I went
on to explain that the nerve endings that communicate pain to the brain are indeed in
the arm but the actual experience of pain is in the head. This may be a strange concept
for some of you but I find it helpful to know that my sore back is in my head. And rubbing
it helps, because rubbing it stimulates other nerves that send new messages back to the
brain and confuse the pain messages.
Start thanking your pain. Because pain is a part of your life and getting rid of the
pain shouldn't be your goal. If you place your hand near a hot stove, the pain very
quickly makes you move your arm � in other words you can hear your body say � move
it, it is damn hot and i'm burning! The last thing you want to do is shut that communication
down � suppressing the pain. Get interested. Be fascinated by your wonderful body. What
is that headache saying- drink water, stretch, eat, take a break?
You can start altering your relationship to pain by learning to listen and understand
all the different speakings from your marvellous body. When you need to use the toilet, go
and use the toilet straight away; don't wait. When you are hungry, stop what you are doing
and get something to eat; don't wait. When you are tired, go to bed � turn the tv off
and sleep! Don't just watch 1 more show like a zombie. Try this all through this course
and notice how often you are tempted to ignore your body.
There is evidence to show that medicating our pain, lowers our pain threshold over time.
So much like the alcoholic who now needs six drinks to get a buzz when it used to take
only three, you find yourself needing a lot more medication to deal with that ache or
pain. Learn to trust your body to heal and you will find that one day, your pain is no
longer in control � you are. You are the doctor remember?
When you first begin this process, it will be challenging. If you are used to medicating
your pain, your brain will scream at you to take pain killers when you first begin cutting
down. It really is a choice whether or not to medicate � there is no 'I had to take
them'.
It takes about a month before the pill habit becomes an un-habit and eventually you won't
even think about taking a pill for your aches and pains � you will simply notice your
body speaking and know that you have made friends with you pain. The good news is that
after months of not medicating the intensity of your pain becomes very manageable. I know
this because I haven't taken medication in over 15 years.
To lower your pain threshold try these 3 things:
One, listen to your body signals Two, break the pain medication habit (try
not taking pain killers)
Three, distract your pain (rub it, do a puzzle or do something out of character like hula
hooping).
Trust your body to heal itself and I promise you, you can make friends with your pain.