“Exercise has similar effects on pain to that of oral NSAIDs and paracetamol”
~ recent meta analysis with 152 studies comparing the effects of exercise to NSAIDs for treatment of pain from knee osteoarthritis.
The Bad:
Isn’t it wickedly crazy how many people got so-very sick over Christmas break?
I was super lucky not to get my partner’s brutal cold.
But then … I got a sciatica flare up instead.
I guess the nervous system will let you know if it isn’t happy, one way or the other.
The flare-up started innocently enough with fatigue and mental fog.
I assumed it was just the post-holiday funk and attempted to whip myself out of it.
My body had other ideas.
A couple days later my digestive system joined the rebellion. By the time I realized what exactly was happening, I had a full-on sciatic flare.
You know the drill…
The Ugly:
Pain and fear are like conjoined twins.
With pain comes fear.
Fear intensifies pain.
When our mind flips out in fear – and for most of us that happens outside our conscious control – we lose our capacity to rationalize and think logically.
It’s because the survival part of our brain takes over our world, and it’s not exactly rational.
This can feel like spinning mental wheels, with invasive thoughts whizzing through the mind at super sonic speeds. Like nausea. Or tightness in the chest.
Like low grade charlie horses in every muscle of the body.
Like flipping from side to side the entire night long, all without a minute of rest.
A flare-up + flip-out is about the time when many of us get utterly frustrated and start throwing money at pain. Exactly a year ago – in the middle of flare-up / freak-out – I spent 1500$ of money I didn’t have on a pair of glasses I didn’t really need and ultimately couldn’t use.
This wasn’t the first time I tossed money at pain (supplements, treatments, you name it) and got nothing back… I’d call that a rather poor return on investment!
The Curious:
Curiously, this year and this time around, I didn’t freak out.
I have to say that not freaking out about a flare-up is an absolute first for me.
Usually, my brain takes no time at all to react to just about anything, never mind a threat of a flare up.
Understanding what flare-ups are all about magically de-threatened the current situation for me. This knowledge, combined with a healthy doze of curiosity, kept me moving, and moving forward.
Curiously, developing curiosity about how we feel is one of the first and most important steps in trauma recovery. Uncoupling pain from fear is a huge deal!
The last few years I’ve been working on expanding my capacity to remain curious even when I am feeling yucky… and this time around, cultivating curiosity paid off.
The Good:
Curiosity is the antidote to fear and mental wheel-spinning.
Because I remained curious this time around, I was able to assess the situation rationally, and come up with an action plan.
The good and short of it was that I was done with the acute part of the flare-up in less then 3 days. I didn’t even have to change my training routine….This, coming from a person who used to live in flare ups for years, is a radical improvement.
Beyond that, I feel empowered by this experience.
And grateful.
And maybe a little dizzy – it is a surreal feeling to suddenly see 18 years of learning and training all come together in one powerful way.
Hey, my name is Julia
Living with chronic pain has taught me to look for solutions in unlikely places – places where most people see only problems.
Over the years I’ve gotten to be pretty good at this problem-solving and silver-lining finding thing.
So good that I felt compelled to share what I’ve learned and help others to find their sea legs while navigating, living, and winning their battle with chronic pain.
