Motion is lotion
5 reasons movement matters for overcoming chronic pain
Hurts to move?
Fear of movement because you think it will hurt? Or that you will injure yourself?
Too tiring?
These are common barriers to moving.
Yet movement is essential for getting better.
Here is why.
Tomorrow I will describe the how.
Movement is active.
Overcoming chronic pain is an active process.
As much as you may hope someone can do something to you to make it better, unfortunately it does not work that way.
Overcoming pain is something you do.
With guidance and encouragement, and the caring concern of a skilled and specialist practitioner; i.e./ a pain coach.
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5 reasons why movement matters:
Your body tissues need movement to be healthy, and building health skilfully is one of the primary themes to overcome chronic pain. You nourish them, pumping blood and oxygen through, washing sensitising chemicals away.
There is not much you can achieve without some kind of movement…
What happens when you don’t move? Some say that they feel better if they keep still, albeit usually tense because of the fear of pain from movement. On the one hand avoiding, on the other knowing you will have to move at some point. The longer you leave it, the harder it becomes because the fear builds. Or the stiffness builds. Stiffness is information from the body encouraging movement.
Your body state determines the types of thoughts you have, and you will be in better states when you move consistently in different ways through the day. This is because your body systems need movement to be healthy, and if there is a lack of movement, everything becomes stagnant, including thinking. Thinking, the mind, is best thought of as embodied. You are your mind and your body as one, not separate. The mind is not in the head or in the brain. You think with your whole self, and movement plays a huge role in thinking well. This is why, when done according to your needs, you will feel better with movement, despite the story that is going on.
How you move shapes the world you perceive. The opportunities that the world presents are determined by your ability to move. Improving your mobility and movement increases opportunities and possibilities.
Motion is lotion.
Next time, I will look at ways of moving when you are suffering chronic pain, with a view to overcoming your pain by focusing on living well and on where you are going.
Focus on what you want rather than what you don’t.
RS
The Pain Coach: guiding and encouraging you to understand overcome your chronic pain
Understand and overcome your chronic pain, the book. For people who are suffering and for people who are helping and guiding the people who are suffering.
It is also for people who want to live well because we all suffer and want to learn how to ease suffering by living our best lives.