Welcome to our Chronic Pain resource package. You’ve just taken the first step towards changing your life for the better!
Chronic pain is defined as pain that has lasted for more than three months. It usually begins as a result of some type of physical trauma, but can continue to be a problem long after any tissue damage has healed.
Ironically, it’s the efficiency of our body’s self-preservation and protection processes and mechanisms that can cause the problem. The body becomes hyper vigilant for warning signs or dangers that it thinks could increase existing pain or even cause new pain. It may avoid certain movements, register pain from far milder stimuli, and it conditions our brains to become fearful, causing an almost constant state of “fight or flight”.
As a result of this constant stress – the excessive cortisol levels produced, the sleep deprivation caused by chronic pain, the anxiety and/or depression that often accompanies such a debilitating and life-altering condition – we can easily fall into the trap of a viscous cycle. Pain can cause insomnia and depression – depression causes insomnia – insomnia lowers our resilience levels which can lead to further depression and more pain…. Pain can prevent us from doing the things we love, and the things we believe we “should” be able to do – that affects our self-image and self-worth which can lead to depression – and so on and so on.
This package contains a variety of resources, including physical practices, meditations and other information, designed to help you retrain your brain by learning to be more mindful of what the body actually feels rather than what it expects to feel, and to minimise the risk of flare-ups and other stressors. I hope you find it helpful ????????