{"id":853,"date":"2021-09-14T10:04:51","date_gmt":"2021-09-14T09:04:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unityphysio.ebc-designs.com\/?p=853"},"modified":"2023-06-23T11:56:35","modified_gmt":"2023-06-23T10:56:35","slug":"meaning-purpose-values-in-recovery-from-suffering-with-pain-to-living-well","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unityphysio.co.uk\/meaning-purpose-values-in-recovery-from-suffering-with-pain-to-living-well\/","title":{"rendered":"Meaning, Purpose & Values in Recovery From Suffering With Pain to Living Well"},"content":{"rendered":"
What is Recovery From Suffering With Pain to Living Well<\/strong><\/p>\n
I am referring to recovery from suffering with pain to living well in this blog as being able to live a values aligned life that\u2019s full of meaning, with pain being in the background.\u00a0 Let\u2019s get the clouds cleared and say now that pain can and does change, it even fully goes for some people though this is a low percentage of people.<\/p>\n
Very little in life is linear, recovery from suffering with pain to living well with pain certainly isn\u2019t linear, it can look pretty messy.\u00a0 If you tried to draw pain recovery it would most likely look like a child\u2019s scribble. \u00a0Just as children learn through scribbling how to draw we can also learn through suffering with pain how to live well again. \u00a0There can be small ups and downs, big dips, sometimes steep rises and lots of back and forth moves. \u00a0Life in general is messy, it\u2019s often not plain sailing and it can be helpful to recognize the resilience we have built in the tricky waters.\u00a0 We have things that help as we sail including our crew, a lighthouse, a map of our favourite destinations, a compass, understanding the weather and the current changes, and of course an anchor (or a few different anchors).\u00a0 Want to know what a compass, lighthouse and a crew have to do with recovery from persistent pain?\u00a0 Keep reading\u2026<\/p>\n
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What Has a Crew, a Map, a C<\/strong>ompass, an Anchor & a Lighthouse Got to Do With Recovery From Suffering With Pain & Living Well? \n<\/em><\/strong> \nAll of these things work together, so for example when a rest is helpful if the water is not still enough to rest safely we can drop anchor to add some safety.\u00a0 An example in life could be when things are busy, we have a lot to do and are feeling stressed, it\u2019s is likely that if we simply sit to rest our minds will carry on and our fight-flight system doesn\u2019t get chance to down regulate.\u00a0 One thing we can do is sit and focus on our breathing and do a breath practice like soothing rhythm breathing (used in compassionate mind training), or we can practice a meditation or another grounding practice.\u00a0 Anchoring our mind in our bodies, staying fully connected to the present moment and restoring some balance in the autonomic nervous system are all important and help us live well with pain and can help change it too.<\/p>\n
Our crew are important, one really important crew member is our compassionate self, I see the compassionate self as the chief officer.\u00a0 The chief officer shares compassion with the captain and all the crew and also extends this further afield to passing boats, helping everyone to navigate the tricky water.\u00a0 We all have a critical voice, it\u2019s part of being human, and when we are suffering with pain this voice commonly gets quite loud.\u00a0 When we have a flare-up guess what the self-critical voice often gets even louder alongside more threat based feelings & emotions like guilt, frustration, anxiety and shame.\u00a0 These all ramp up the pain volume, it\u2019s one of the common vicious circles in pain. \u00a0Self-compassion has been shown to help decrease self-criticism and modulate threat based feelings & emotions. \u00a0Self-compassion is also a more sustainable place to motivate ourselves from than self-criticism, it doesn\u2019t have the drawbacks that self-critical motivation has.\u00a0 Compassion is also important because it\u2019s been shown to help decrease stress, increase resilience and generally be helpful for our wellbeing. \u00a0Gilbert et al (2017) showed that self-compassion and self-reassurance overlap and that self-compassion mediates the link between self-reassurance and wellbeing.<\/p>\n
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Other crew members could be family and friends, maybe a pain specialist clinician, and things like exercise\/movement and sleep.\u00a0 Sometimes some of the people in our crew need teaching about pain as there are lots of myths and misconceptions around pain.\u00a0 Everyone having an up to date evidenced based understanding of pain and how this relates to you is important.\u00a0 Understanding pain could be seen as a crew member too. \u00a0All the crew members work together to nurture our health and wellbeing, all are important, some of the most important could be said to be: regular exercise\/movement, sleep, good nutrition, connection and compassion.\u00a0 Here\u2019s a link to the exercise and pain blog I wrote about exercising with persistent pain\u00a0\u00a0https:\/\/www.unityphysio.co.uk\/exercising-with-persistent-pain\/<\/a><\/p>\n