Pain is in your brain
Pain is the experience we have when our brains want to alert us that there is (or risk of) damage in some part of our body. When this happens pain is protective and allows us to take action – like when we touch a hot stove we react by pulling our hand away from the danger and thereby minimise damage.
Our response to pain is to move, think and act differently, to avoid the source of the pain and allow healing to occur.
However pain isn’t as simple as that, the amount of pain may not relate to the amount of damage. A paper cut hurts a lot, and the actual damage is very minor. At the other end of the spectrum major injury, like a battle field leg amputation, may not be registered by the brain as painful at all at the time of the injury. Phantom pain may be experienced after a surgical amputation, that is pain in the body part that doesn’t physically exist anymore.
There are many reasons why someone might experience pain and wide variation in the way people with seemingly the same injury or condition may respond.
Pain is complex. But to put it quite simply, pain is in your brain. Your brain sorts the signals sent to it from your body and if it feels threatened your brain will alert you through pain.
To summarise: pain is “in your head”. This is not to say that it isn’t real. All pain is real.
A Certified Feldenkrais Practitioner who understands the complex world of pain can help you navigate your way towards increased comfort and improved ease of movement. They will help you understand why you have pain and what you can do to help yourself. Understanding the appropriate amount of rest or movement, the role other areas such as diet, drugs and surgery have, and how you can tap into the power of your brain and nervous system, to assist healing, comfort and ability to pursue your life’s passion.
“I’ve tried so many things – pilates, physiotherapy, massage, gym. People think they can help, but a lot of times they can hurt you without realising. Feldenkrais is gentle and does not cause me more pain.”
Maddie.
