This Chronic Pain Mindset Shift Will Change Your Life Don't Make The Same Mistake I Did

For years I lived with chronic pain and looking back on it now I realized that while there were definitely physical issues, my mindset played a bigger part than I'd like to admit.

Nowadays, I am painfree and back to the activities I love to do, but that wasn't always the case.

When I first started having physical issues now more than 10 years ago, I experienced all sorts of debilitating symptoms like migraine, gait disturbance, TMJrelated pain, neck pain and back pain to name a few.

At age 19 I was given many diagnoses, which I desperately searched for in order to get a diagnosis, which at the time I thought was the key to getting the "correct" treatment that would restore me to the level of function I desired.

However, I would fail treatment, then get bounced out of PT to another specialist, ultimately get a different diagnosis and then be directed for different treatment, which also seemed to have little positive impact.

Later I would take matters into my own hands and become a personal trainer and then years later, a physical therapist, figuring that if I could figure out how the body worked then I would be able to "fix" myself.

After earning a doctoral level degree in physical therapy and getting great results for patients, I still couldn't seem to crack the code on how to beat this chronic pain.

I would go on to advanced training in various methods of PT and training and found some success implementing methods from folks like Shirley Sahrmann and Postural Restoration Institute.

However, what I failed to realize during this process was that the problem wasn't doctors, PTs, special methods, or even my body but rather my mindset.

In the years I had chronic pain I fell into the trap of always searching for an answer, needing to be certain, and oscillating between overdoing it and imposing selflimiting beliefs and fearavoidance behaviors.

My decreased physical function, like many people dealing with chronic pain, became a selffulfilling prophesy.

This all changed when I hit rock bottom and it became blatantly obvious to me that my mental health was in rough shape and needed to be addressed.

I began performing mindfulness meditation regularly and retrained my ability to feel safe in my environment slowly over time.

I began slowly increasing my activity level and being open to loading my body progressively, not falling for the trap of not doing anything or overdoing it.

I worked on things I could control like sleep, diet, management of negative thoughts and started to step back and see the big picture.

It was as though the fog had lifted and suddenly I could see clearly.

Much of the pain we experience is a manifestation of how we are reacting to an injury, illness, or traumatic experience.

When we become identified with this reaction, the cycle of pain seems to be harder and harder to break.

Often times it is just a matter of making a small shift when it comes to behaviors, assumptions and beliefs that can allow us the break free from this spell.

This is something I continue to work on to this day and I think it is probably the best skill that has most significantly improved my health and wellbeing.

Hopefully this helps you too.

If you are ready to shift your mindset and take the next step towards improving your movement to get back to the activities you love, head over to www.chaplinperformance.com

00:00 Intro
01:20 Two Factors to Manage with Injury, Trauma, and Chronic Pain
01:53 Answer Mindset Orienting to the Past
03:26 Solution Mindset Orienting to the Future
05:29 Strategy Mindset Orienting to the Present
07:37 Recap