3 key concepts to understand pain

Constantly being bent over phones, tablets and laptops is a major instigator for pain

1 - GRIPPING: The habitual activation of muscles unnecessarily and unconsciously

In order to make a full recovery from soreness tightness and pain gripping is something that we have to deal with. Put most simply gripping is the activation of any muscle unnecessarily. It is the habituated and unconscious activation of muscles for no good reason at all. The problem with gripping is - it can become your new reality. Over time with enough gripping the muscles will go into contraction and become locked in that position. How often do you see people walking around with their shoulders up their ears? This is one of the most common gripping habits - hiking our shoulders up as an unconscious response to our experience. A pivotal moment in my recovery from chronically sore neck and shoulders was the first time I caught myself doing this. I quickly realized I was doing it much more often than when just driving. Even as we are going through the healing process the habituated program tries to keep running. This is why bringing awareness back into the body is essential throughout the healing process. Making a full recovery from soreness, tightness and pain will never happen without coming to the realization of our holding patterns. Gripping, in all of it’s MANY forms and layers, is a bad habit that we must break.

Pain amnesia can occur with anyone. Moms and Dads carrying around kids and their gear are often overlooked reasons for chronic pain

2 - PAIN AMNESIA: When we have successfully pushed pain out of our minds

One of the most common things people say to me during a session is - “I didn’t even know it hurt there”. How can we not even know we have significant pain in an area? The answer is amnesia. We learn to disconnect from areas of trauma when pain is so constant we push it to the back of our minds for so long we eventually succeed. Through this avoidance we disconnect entirely from it. When low grade pain is ignored long enough it becomes unrecognizable as pain and an amnesic barrier is created. The problem with this is it can only be ignored for so long before the conditions that cause pain (4 main causes) get worse and worse. This leads to chronic pain that can no longer be pushed away.

One kink can cause pain in other places linked to that part of your body

3 - KINETIC CHAIN: The cause and effect chain of reaction

Ida Rolf, the inventor of Rolfing, used to like to say “Where you think it is it ain't.” What she meant by this is where we feel pain is rarely the cause of the pain and never the whole story. It is just one link in the kinetic chain. As sessions progress it often appears as if the pain is moving around the body rather mysteriously. What is happening is that as one issue begins to resolve suddenly another pain pops up rather mysteriously really. This seemingly new pain is actually the next link in the kinetic chain of disorganization or disfunction. What appeared to move around randomly were actually part of the same network or kinetic chain. Each pain point is a different link in the same chain. This is why people say I didn’t even know I had pain there. It is part of the kinetic chain but its an amnesiac part of the chain. It’s a part we have successfully blocked out.

Let's figure out the source of your pain and start you on the path to healing and pain relief. Together we can create a treatment plan to retrain your mind and body and get you firing on all cylinders.

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