pain, the brain and the moving remedy

We all experience pain at points in our lives. It may vary to from the acute pain of a fresh injury to the chronic back pain that doesn’t seem to relief itself despite various attempts and treatments. When pain persists, it is common for protective mechanisms to evolve with it. These may range from mental attitudes to compensatory movement patterns to avoiding movement altogether.

Yet merely “learning how to live with pain” is not the only option available to us. We can learn about our pain, what happens in the body when we experience it, and how we can train our brains to produce less of it.

The main thing to know about pain is that it is a protective device. It is signalling of danger. Acute pain is very important. It encourages us to change our behaviour in order for our tissues to heal properly, which usually takes 3-6 months after injury has occurred.

Yet in many cases of chronic pain, pain and tissue damage are not synonymous. We may keep experiencing the pain of an injury long after the tissue itself has healed. And many of us have tissue damage without any pain whatsoever.

Merely “learning how to live with pain” is not the only option available to us.

All of pain is produced by the brain. When stimulation takes place in the tissues of the body, specialised nerve cells called nociceptors transmit the information to the spinal cord and the spinal cord forwards it to the brain. The brain then takes into consideration information from all the other senses as well as memories of past experiences to evaluate the situation - whether we are under danger or safe. Pain is signalled at the moment when the brain decides the threat is real and we should know about it.

Your experience of pain depends intimately on how much danger your brain thinks you’re in, not how much danger you are actually in. Anything that changes your brain’s evaluation of pain will influence the sensation of pain.

Pain is constructed from many different elements, such as specific nerves, immune cells and chemicals produced in the body. All of these influence one another. Activity, attention, thought and emotion are all part of the landscape of pain. The way you think about your pain can change the way you feel it. It is much more than warning signals from tissue. All that influences you, from emotions to thoughts to environment may influence your experience of pain. Your perception of pain depends on physical, psychological and social factors.

Chronic pain is often a disturbance in the alarm system of the body. The longer you have pain, the better your system becomes at producing it through the process of sensitisation. The brain has forgotten to turn off the alarm signal even when it’s no longer needed.

Anything that changes your brain’s evaluation of pain will influence the sensation of pain.

The great news is that in a similar way as the brain learns to sustain pain in the body, it can learn to get better at processing the good news of safety and wellbeing. This is a feature of neuroplasticity. When we receive good news, we learn to process good news. We can unlearn pain. When we learn to pay attention to the good news the body is sending, the brain will feel safer and pain signalling will balance out.

What are the most effective ways to help you further along this process?

Getting to know the map of the body is of great help. At any given moment there’s a ton of sensorial information within, and feeling into the qualities and nuances they express is a great way to get better acquainted with the landscape you inhabit. This helps you differentiate between pain and resource and support us in learning to feel safe while intense feelings are present, without overwhelm.

Orienting to sensation in the body can also support us exploring different ways of languaging our pain. Our felt sense has a more accurate, often imaginative grip on what the lived experience of pain is actually like. Shifting the metaphors we use shifts the way we relate to our experience.

Learn new and interesting ways of moving, thinking and feeling. This will introduce the brain to novelty, which promotes shifting of stuck bodily patterns.

Most importantly; move, and (re)learn to move with pleasure. Move in ways that feel meaningful to you, in ways that spark joy and playfulness. Get creative, and ask for support if you need it.

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Sources & find out more:

Steve Haines: Pain Is Really Strange

Lorimer Moseley: Why things hurt on Youtube

Prof Peter O'Sullivan: Back pain - separating fact from fiction on Youtube