Understanding Pain - Pt. 1

Pain is not something we learn a lot about when we’re growing up, except that we don’t like it, we see others curse it, wish it away, see it as a problem, often an enemy, as an affliction, something being forced upon them from some external place. We learn to be afraid of it, rather than taught to understand it.

I remember as a child, the pain of sore throats and ear infections, cuts, scrapes, the loss of skin on knees and knuckles in hockey matches; the pain of a broken nose in cricket – all of these physical injuries or illnesses, infections and the like.

I was riding in a taxi recently whilst interstate teaching and said to the driver who had asked the reason for my visit that I was running a workshop on “pain”. After a pause, she said, now there’s something I hate. This said a lot for me. It’s our relationship with pain that is so important in being able to change it.

If you hate it, you reject it and then it’s hard to understand it and heed the message it is offering.

I appreciate now that there are many contributions to pain and that pain has a purpose. It is not the enemy, and although it is unpleasant, it is very unpleasant for a reason, because it is a message about a problem. It is essentially a message from myself to myself, and if I listen to the message and understand it I may be able to grow, heal, prevent recurrence of the pain and often times prevent further illness and even death.

Pain is part of our survival armory; it is like an alarm system, a response to perceived, actual or potential danger.

Pain is unpleasant – and is so for a good reason. We’re meant to pay attention to it. If it weren’t so uncomfortable, we wouldn’t pay attention to it.

I have come to learn also that pain does not exist in the tissues of the body. Although I feel that pain is in my thumb when I hit it with a hammer, it is not. It is in my brain. It is created there by centres of the brain that have interpreted messages coming via the nervous system, from the squashed tissues in my thumb.

Pain exists in the brain and is part of a much broader response to the perception of danger to the tissues of my body. These include:

·       Tension, which might be splint to protect an area of the body that has been damaged

·       The sympathetic nervous system (SNS), which drives the fight and flight responses through the body including chemical responses that kick start inflammation and healing pathways.

It is these neural and chemical interconnecting message systems between mind and body that mean that I can no longer allow myself to perceive that the mind and body are separate

Pain is an experience; it involves sensation, memory, and emotion and is unique and subjective to each individual.

Say I apply a light pressure to my thumb, a message is sent by a mechanically compressed nerve ending (well many lightly compressed nerve endings to be honest), to my spinal cord and then on up into my brain where it travels to many centres including the somato-sensory cortex, at the top of the brain. This is where the map of the body exists in the brain. This is how I know that it is a pressure applied to my thumb and not my big toe.

If I were a soldier, and had gone to war, and were involved in a skirmish and got shrapnel in my hand which got infected and had to be amputated I could years later still feel pain in my hand that no longer existed because the messages were still moving between these centres of the brain. This phenomenon is known as phantom limb syndrome, and proves again that pain is not in the tissues.

To be continued in “Understanding Pain – Pt. 2”

Written by Adam Cootes of Arising Self

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Gratitude.

If we really wanted to, we could find fault in absolutely everything in life. If we wanted to, we could also be grateful for absolutely everything we have in life. It’s a choice and it takes a while for all of us to realise this. In the past I’ve read - “The more I understand the mind and the human experience, the more I begin to suspect there is no such thing as unhappiness; there is only ungratefulness.” And when you truly focus on every single thing you can be grateful for, each and every day, you’ll soon see, know and trust that it’s a choice to be unhappy, just as much as it’s a choice to be truly happy. What are you grateful for today? Are you going to choose happiness over ungratefulness? 

Two Parts of You.

Your body and your mind are one, two-parts of the one YOU. This might not be news to you, but even if it isn’t news to you, you may not still be living as though they are one. You may still blame or reject your body when it is unwell or when it is in pain.

Un-wellness and pain are messages from the body to your conscious mind, messages from one part of yourself to another part of yourself. They are messages about problems. How often do you pause to listen, to enquire, and seek to understand what the messages are about?

One of the communication systems that connect the mind and body is the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS). The ANS has two main arms: The Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS) and the Parasympathetic Nervous System (PNS). The SNS is our “Fight and Flight” nervous system, and the PNS is our “Rest, Digest and Repair” nervous system.

The SNS is responsible for quick responses to threat and danger. It is the system that stimulates, that creates alertness. It is our stress response system.

These two-systems can’t both be running fully at the same time. When the SNS is on-line, the PNS is off-line. Because most of us lead busy, overstimulated fast paced lives with little focus on rest and relaxation and plenty of focus on stress, trying to keep up, keep on top, stay in control and prove ourselves our SNS is hogging the airwaves.

When this happens, our immune systems become suppressed, our digestive function becomes compromised, there is a rise in inflammation in the body, and biochemical imbalance occurs. All of which drive illness and pain.

If we want to be healthy, we have to look at our lifestyles, the choices we make, the ways in which we push ourselves, and the beliefs and stories we operate our lives by.

Slow down, be kind to yourself and learn to say no. What’s the worse thing that could happen if you do? You might be healthier, happier and more at peace.

Written by Adam Cootes, Arising Self - http://arisingself.com 

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Arising-Self/153987954634003 

The Healing Wolf.

He came to me in my dreams and told me not to fear anymore.

Letter To A Friend.

Hi darling,

I hope you've arrived safely and the trip is going well.

In response to your Monday night musings... 

We all experience things in life to different intensities at different times in order to awaken our spirit and soul journey. Don't ask me why. We'll never truly know. But what this requires from us as human beings, is to truly embark upon a journey of healing...at all times. To heal, this requires letting go, acceptance, patience and gratitude for the things we do have and the blessings we have had, at all times. But to understand how to let go and accept in the first place is often a big journey within itself. The bottom line is, being human means living in pain. But we can only strive to reduce the pain by actively healing and treating ourselves with love. To do this, we need to start partaking in "things", "exercises", "awakenings", "healing’s" to get there. That's why the world is full of various mind, body, soul, spiritual healers that can aid and assist the rest of us on this journey. And the truth is, we’re all our own spiritual healer. We have the power to make all the change we want and need. Have you started reading your "You Can Heal Your Life” Louise Hay book that I bought you? It's a gem. Please take the time to read it. I know that in theory, you understand all of this, but what also comes with your intellectual understanding is the resistance to let go, because in your own mind, you feel you already "get it all". However, like I said, the pain won't dissipate until we put love and energy into its dismissal. It just won't. We are both "thinking" people. This also means that often we're "fear based" reactive people too. Your journey is to heal your perception, understanding of men; forgive yourself, accept all that has been done and what hasn't been / wasn't. Your journey is to find love again for yourself and in turn men. To see them as people, human beings and not just "men" who essentially all "fail you". As I've said you in the past. YOU MUST FOCUS ON YOU first before you will get any shifting externally. IF YOU DON'T GO WITHIN YOU GO WITHOUT - one of my favourite sayings. Life is simply a journey - an ongoing one. It's a game of snakes and ladders. Sometimes we're climbing and many other times we fall. You just have to keep on the SPIRITUAL journey otherwise life’s pain will continue to get the better of you. TAKE ACTION FOR YOU. FOR YOUR LIFE. FOR YOUR FUTURE. FOR YOUR HAPPINESS. Don't just try and "rationalise", "control" and "resolve" in your head. It's your heart that needs to do the work. 

Love you and we'll chat again soon.

Everything Happens for a Reason.

In September of 2012, I got a parasite in Nepal called Blastocystis Hominis. I’ve heard of people embarking upon third world travel, only to return with either worms, bacteria or parasites in their system, however, naively, I never thought this would happen to me.

In the past 6 months, I’ve experienced intense symptoms of chronic fatigue, nausea, diarrhea, constipation, lack of concentration, dizziness and I hate to admit it, but feelings of depression as a result. It’s the first time in my life I’ve had to truly relinquish control over my health, many aspects of my life, and realise the value of good health - good health I had always taken for granted. 

We always say that we appreciate how lucky we are, but it wasn’t until I was personally knocked down for 6 months that I could truly understand the value and sheer importance of looking after yourself. It’s not as though I asked for a parasite or intended on attracting one (or extremely high quantities in my case) into my life, but it happened and I’ve had to step up and grow rapidly as a human being in my process of healing. 

No words could describe how “off” I felt most of the time. Friends couldn’t comprehend that I was still sick, day after day, week after week. People didn’t want to understand why I was doing my best to avoid alcohol, sugar, yeast, wheat and dairy or getting skinnier and skinnier. 99% of people had no concept of a parasite being able to have this affect on someone, but it can. Suddenly, the usual fun, free, open and spontaneous “me” felt deeply trapped in a cage with no escape, still no answers and boring explanations as to my sudden “dark change”. I wouldn’t wish this experience upon anyone. 

The parasite essentially infiltrates your emotional nervous system by living in your intestines and gut. It consumes all goodness you put into your body. It scrambles your brain, confuses every aspect of your digestive system and basically screws up your emotional nervous system. You can’t think straight, process information well and you constantly feel as though there is something inside of every part of you, negatively controlling all aspects of your being. The symptoms have different degrees of affect on different people. 

The thing that “saved” me was trialling a procedure in an “antibiotic infusion” through the Centre of Digestive Diseases in Sydney, Australia. Google it. I had to wait 6 weeks post this procedure in order to do more results to see if I’d managed to get rid of it. These 6 weeks were also grueling. I firstly felt pretty shitty post the procedure, but then a couple of weeks later I felt amazing. A few more weeks after that, I suddenly felt extreme waves of nausea, some days had extreme bloating, then nothing; and others, strange symptoms. The doctors described this as “antibiotic euphoria”. 

But what I also embarked upon were healing’s of a different kind. I’ve committed to meditation, reiki, naturopathy, emotional freedom therapy, psychotherapy, integrated body healing (inner child work), spiritual healing and neurological emotional therapy / kinesiology. I’ve wanted to explore it all - as much as I could. The past 6 months has been as good a time as any to do this type of exploring into the realms of good health and healing.

And here is why everything happens for a reason. If I hadn’t visited my sister in Nepal, I would have never got the parasite. If I had never got the parasite, I wouldn’t have invested all the time, effort and money into self development and improved health - mentally, physically and emotionally. Through this whole experience, my perspective has changed; not only towards myself, but towards the experiences I’ve endured in life, my family, friends and the world around me. I’ve also learned who my true friends are and that at the end of the day, family is who you can truly rely on, even if the family picture “ain’t ideal”. 

I have more gratitude in my heart, deeper self love, appreciation and self-acceptance; I’ve worked hard in recognising ego driven behaviour and thinking, versus heart based thinking and feeling, and I can see exactly why I’ve arrived at the point I have today.

And so, directly from Nepal... “Namaste” to you and most importantly, to myself.