Peace + PRT
The retreat that I was going to speak at this weekend was canceled, but I still wanted to share what I took the time to write. I was really excited to share about how I help people heal and also teach about Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT), which is an amazing tool that helps people heal from chronic pain and other chronic conditions. So if you were curious about what I was going to talk about at the retreat, please feel free to read my speech below.
I’m so happy to have this opportunity to talk to you about the power to heal with peace, love, balance and nourishment. Within the context of peace, I will teach you about Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT) and how you can use it to rewire your brain, break the pain-fear cycle and heal from pain and other chronic conditions.
It is my hope that while you are here today, you will have many opportunities for learning and healing. In this group of people, my guess is that everyone here cares deeply about their health and wellbeing. Each of you is on your own unique healing path.
Here today, we are offering you a space to become equipped with knowledge on how to live a more energized and fulfilling life, how to optimize your hormones, heal your gut, nourish your body and more. We hope that you will gain essential knowledge and tools and find sustainable habits for your lifelong healing journey.
What I’m going to talk about right now are powerful lifestyle practices that can help you to heal from chronic mental, emotional and physical pain and symptoms. The power to heal with peace, love, balance and nourishment.
First I will talk about the power of peace in your life. Why it is so important... How to be calm and have a regulated nervous system… How to heal from being chronically fearful and in a stage of fight or flight… And how to maintain inner peace and peace in your relationships.
Why is peace and calm so important for our healing? When we are in a stressed state, our nervous system goes into a fight, flight or freeze response and our body systems stop functioning properly. When our nervous system is dysregulated because of this lack of peace and this chronic anxiety, we don’t breath deeply, we don’t sleep well and our digestion becomes weakened.
When we are suddenly caught in a stressful situation that we may not have anticipated would be so stressful - like traveling - we can become constipated. This is because our nervous system prompts our body to hold it and just do what it needs to survive.
Or when we are extremely anxious about something coming up in the near future, exciting or challenging - a wedding or a big exam - we may start experiencing diarrhea, because your nervous system may deem it best to release everything immediately, preparing you to run for your life, if necessary.
These are just a couple of specific examples of how fear and anxiety, your emotions, feelings and perceptions can affect how your body - specifically your digestive system - functions. Your brain and nervous system’s job is to keep you alive, so if we feel subconsciously threatened by our fast-paced life, perfectionistic tendencies and the pressures we put on ourselves, then we are more likely to experience chronic pain and chronic mental and physical symptoms.
We have a sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system. The sympathetic nervous system is the state of high alert, fight or flight. The parasympathetic is the rest, digest, calm and healing state. So the first step in regulating your nervous system is being self-aware. This means knowing if you are naturally a highly sensitive or a type A person. It is also being mindful throughout the day, every day, mindful of your breathing, your posture, your sensations and emotions.
Even right now, let’s take a moment to notice how you, your brain and your nervous system are doing. We’ll practice awareness. Let’s observe and do a body scan right now. Notice your breath, are you holding your breath or breathing shallowly? Or are you taking nice, gentle, deep, calming breaths? How is your body positioned, are you slouched or tense or gritting your teeth, clenching your jaw or are you relaxed and calm? If you notice tension, then you can intentionally breathe deeply, stretch and put yourself in a more comfortable relaxed position.
Later today, when you are home, I encourage you to ask those same questions about your breath, body posture, and also consider sensations. Are there any uncomfortable sensations in your body that need attending to? Are you exhausted but keep pushing yourself or have you been sitting for too long, feeling stiff and need to get moving or stretching? Are you smiling or do you have a concerned or stressed look on your face?
It is important to have these check-ins throughout the day, everyday, moments to pause, breathe, stretch, smile, have gratitude and be calm. After self-awareness, comes doing whatever you can to remove obstacles that are blocking your peace and calm.
If you are highly sensitive you may be sensitive to sounds. For example I am highly sensitive and sensitive to sounds and for a long time, chewing sounds would bother me and I’m working on reframing that but in the meantime, what helps is music.
So instead of being irritated by my husband's chewing, we put on instrumental jazz background music whenever we enjoy a meal together. The sound of the nice upbeat, smooth and calming music covers any loud chewing sounds. I know my husband appreciates this solution as well, so he can eat in peace. And it is very helpful to keep me calm and happy!
In addition to protecting yourself from irritation, or things that would dysregulate you, your brain and nervous system, it is important to be intentional about taking time to be in this rest and repair state. One way to help calm your mind and body is to sit in a quiet space and meditate. I love tapping meditation and I will be guiding you through one later this afternoon.
A specialized form of guided mindfulness meditation that helps to calm the body and reduce and eliminate chronic pain and other symptoms is the somatic tracking in Pain Reprocessing Therapy. PRT is a great example of the power of calming the brain and nervous system and observing sensations through a lens of curiosity and safety.
So now I am going to explain what Pain Reprocessing Therapy is and how I help my clients heal with those same concepts of peace. The first step in this healing tool is to teach about how the brain creates sensations and the concept of the pain-fear cycle
There have been many studies and research has been done to explain the neuroplasticity of the brain, how the brain can change and adapt and create new neural pathways. The brain is where all pain is created, pain is a danger signal. If you put your hand on a hot stove, the pain is letting you know to move your hand, so you don’t injure yourself further. The pain signal is being generated by your brain. It is an alarm signal.
Sometimes these danger signals can be activated even in the absence of structural damage. The brain can interpret safe signals from the body as if they're dangerous, even though there is nothing injured in the body. In these cases, the pain is like a false alarm. The alarm is really going off (the pain is totally real) and at the same time, there is no fire (your body is not injured).
Neuroplastic pain, also known as primary pain is pain that is generated with no physical injury, nothing physically wrong with the body. The majority of chronic pain and chronic symptoms are neuroplastic and this type of pain and symptoms can be helped and healed with Pain Reprocessing Therapy.
Here’s an example of neuroplastic pain that I experienced myself. It was chronic until I figured out the root cause and how to heal it. Years ago I had gum surgery. Right after the surgery and while it was healing over a few weeks, it was very painful. I had throbbing pain along the side of my face and down behind my right ear. The gum surgeon said this was normal and to take pain medication until it was healed and then the pain should be gone at that point.
So after a few weeks, I can’t remember exactly, my gums healed and the pain was gone. However, a couple of weeks later the same pain that I felt while my gums were healing came back, throbbing pain around my ear and down my neck. I went to my primary care physician because I thought maybe it didn’t heal correctly or I got some sort of infection, I wasn’t sure. She found no infection and diagnosed me with a TMJ disorder that causes jaw pain and suggested that I take pain medication whenever it flared up. Whenever it would flare up, I would take my pain medication or rub it gently or put heat on it and eventually the pain would go away again.
A year or so after that I became a health coach. I started thinking that maybe the pain was related to some food that I was eating that was causing inflammation in that area. I tracked my food for months but couldn't find any pattern. I used heating pads, did self massage and rubbed lavender essential oil behind my ears and down my neck.
All of this was helpful, but I couldn't figure out what the root cause was and how to actually stop it from recurring so intensely and frequently. Then I learned about neuroplastic pain. I understood that when I had the gum surgery, I had a seriously painful injury to my mouth. My brain created a neural pathway of pain, rightly so, because I needed to protect that area in my mouth and not irritate it in order to let it heal.
After that initial injury was healed and there was nothing structurally or physically wrong, no infection or anything, the pain was coming back when my brain and nervous system perceived danger, which was when I was tired, stressed, overwhelmed or experiencing painful emotions.
Because of the way our brains are wired, after the surgery, whenever my brain and nervous system perceived that I was not safe from feelings of overwhelm, stress, anger, frustration, sleep deprivation, any overflow of emotion, my brain would send this pain signal as an alarm and warning that I need to do something quick to protect and care for myself.
Before I understood this, I would perpetuate the pain-fear cycle, the pain would increase and last and come back often because I was searching and trying to figure out what was wrong when what I needed to do was remind myself that there was nothing physically wrong with me, but my brain was just trying to protect me. Now that I am aware of this, I rarely feel this painful sensation behind my right ear and down my neck, but when life gets stressful, I will feel it, but with my knowledge and tools of how to deal with it, it goes away very quickly.
The last time I felt it was actually just a few weeks ago, when we were driving home after dropping my younger daughter off at college. I knew exactly why it was flaring up. We were up at 5:00 AM that morning in order to move her into her dorm during her move-in time. I was tired and sad and emotionally overwhelmed. So I did my simple self-soothing techniques of rubbing and massaging the area behind my right ear and then took a nap on the way home. Thankfully my husband was willing to drive!
I reminded myself that it is normal and okay to feel these feelings of sadness, and it is normal and okay to experience some pain, sometimes, it is all part of life. But when we understand this concept of neuroplastic pain, and we can break the pain-fear cycle quickly, the physical pain doesn't continue to be chronic and debilitating. I reminded myself that I am safe, I just need rest, I can be calm and sleep and I’m not afraid of the pain, it will go away. And it did!
With anyone who has any chronic pain or symptoms, the first step is learning about this type of pain and how fear can amplify and make it worse. Breaking the cycle of fear and calming the nervous system can heal your body.
I also want to mention here that this brain generated reaction to fear can also cause many different debilitating symptoms in addition to pain, such as chronic fatigue, irritable bowel and digestive issues, bloating, dizziness, anxiety and more.
After learning about this type of pain, sensations and symptoms and how they are created, the next step is gathering evidence to confirm if what you are experiencing is due to a physical injury. It may have started as one but is now healed. And now the neural pathways may be misfiring whenever there is overwhelming stress and pressure in your life.
So if someone has debilitating IBS symptoms that are keeping them from leaving their house or living their lives, these healing practices can help. What began as anxiety or food poisoning or a parasite, or what started because of some traumatic experience, could become chronic digestive issues if the fear-symptom cycle is not addressed.
Going to a doctor is really important to help confirm and gather evidence that there is no structural or physical damage, infection, bacterial overgrowth, parasite or tumor. Signs that something may be neuroplastic or primary pain directly generated from the brain are: that it comes and goes, changes location in the body, you only feel it in certain situations, like sitting or standing or running or are triggered by stress and overwhelm.
Another potential point of evidence that your symptoms or pain could be generated from your brain and nervous system dysregulation would be that you’ve been to many different doctors and specialists and none of them are able to find anything physically or structurally wrong. Or if what they have recommended to reduce your pain and symptoms doesn’t really help or it even makes things worse.
Sometimes there may be findings on MRIs of bulging disks, disk degeneration or mild cartilage tears in the knee, but this may not be the cause of your pain. There are studies that show that people, including professional athletes, can have all these abnormalities and no pain at all.
Once someone is confident that there is nothing physically wrong, they believe their pain is generated directly from the brain, not due to a physical issue, they can start doing the work to rewire their brain to not set off the alarm and misfire the pain signal. Here’s an example of how I used Pain Reprocessing Therapy and somatic tracking with one of my clients who was experiencing chronic neck pain.
I had been supporting her with her healing for several months. She understood that the root cause of many of her symptoms was the pressure she put on herself to be perfect, to please everyone around her, and try to keep everyone else happy. And she would often put herself last, sacrificing her wants, her needs and her well-being.
We discussed boundaries and self-care, balance, nourishment and all areas of her life. Over the months, her digestion improved, her energy increased, her mood was stable and she was experiencing more peace and joy. She was still experiencing chronic neck pain, but she thought there was nothing she could do about it because of her job and how she worked with her patients.
As a dental hygienist, she works all day hunched over her patients and it made sense to her that this repetitive behavior could put stress on her neck and cause pain. She was open to the idea that this didn’t need to cause pain and that she was very healthy and strong and maybe the pain could go away when she put herself in a calm, safe, healing space.
I explained neuroplastic pain and how it is possible that it may be her brain trying to protect her from the stress and pressure she puts on herself. Maybe some guided meditation and brain rewiring could help tell her brain that she is healthy, strong and there is nothing physically wrong with her neck. And then, those pain signals could stop firing. I should note here that she had seen a chiropractor and he found nothing physically or structurally wrong with her neck and back.
The goal with Pain Reprocessing Therapy is to view the sensations through a lens of safety. We weren’t trying to get rid of the pain, but to calm her mind and body, calm her nervous system, remind herself that she is safe and that there is nothing wrong with her. We did somatic tracking, which involves mindfulness, assurance of safety and lightness and curiosity instead of fear.
I guided her to focus on her breath, put her hand on her heart, remind herself that she is safe, she is loved and then asked her to describe the sensations in her neck, how intense, the shape, the color, if it was stuck or moving, reminding her the whole time that she is safe, it is the fear of the pain that is firing the pain signals, guided her with encouragement, repeating the idea of safety, calm, being well, rewiring the brain to understand the pain signals do not need to be fired here in this situation, we looked at the pain with curiosity instead of fear, then scanned her body to assess neutral or positive sensations, visualized happy peaceful moments and anything to put her mind and body in calm and happy state. We did this for about 20 minutes and then went back to the sensation in her neck and the painful sensation was gone.
In her situation we had also been talking for several months about how our emotions and stress have a powerful effect on our body and how we feel. She trusted me and understood how this could be helpful for her. So her trust, her belief, her understanding, her mindfulness and awareness of her stress and repressed emotions all helped make this somatic tracking experience very successful, very quickly.
Pain Reprocessing Therapy, how it works to break the pain-fear cycle through brain education, gathering evidence to support whether you have this type of pain, attending to and observing the pain through a lens of safety, focusing on positive sensations and emotional awareness is a great example for why peace is such a powerful practice for your healing.
In addition to this type of nervous system regulation and therapeutic tool, what are other ways to maintain inner peace and peace in your relationships? Maintaining inner peace will look different for everyone. For me it is important to have time alone to go for a walk outside in nature, go for a run, read an inspiring book, listen to calming music or listen to a guided meditation. Sometimes journaling can be extremely helpful as well, to get all of our jumbled thoughts and feelings down on paper. It can help promote clarity and peace of mind.
When it comes to peace in our relationships, some of the most important practices are patience, humbly apologizing, forgiveness, grace, kindness, gratitude and encouragement. As it is with anything that is important in our lives, we need to pay consistent loving attention and put effort into our relationships. Sometimes the root cause of a serious debilitating symptom could be a struggling painful relationship that needs healing. Even with the people we love the most, our family members and those we are closest to, there can sometimes be conflict due to miscommunication, people criticizing each other or trying to control each other because of fear.
This leads us to the power of love, how love heals us. It is so important and healing to practice patience, love and kindness to ourselves and our loved ones. Self-compassion and self-care are essential for your healing. Loving thoughts, loving words and loving kindness have the power to heal your body.
Past trauma and present life stressors can store toxic emotions in your body that can manifest as physical pain, symptoms and disease. In his book When the Body Says No, Dr. Gabor Mate explains how symptoms and disease can be the body's way of saying no, the body's way of trying to get our attention so that we take the time to heal our hearts, heal our emotions and trauma. He shares many stories of his patients and teaches the science behind the mind-body concepts I'm talking about today.
A scientist from Japan named Dr. Masaru Emoto conducted an experiment by exposing water to a particular word or piece of music, freezing it, and photographing the ice crystals formed. Dr. Emoto showed that from beautiful loving words and music, come beautiful crystals, and from mean-spirited, negative words, come malformed and misshapen crystals.
Please be kind to yourself and to everyone around you. Be aware of the thoughts swirling around in your mind. If they are mean and destructive, take the time to replace them with loving and encouraging thoughts. What you think and the thoughts you hold onto affect your mental, emotional and physical health.
Also, personalities who tend to be perfectionistic, people pleasing and put pressure on ourselves and others can perpetuate pain and symptoms. When you are wired to scan your surroundings for what is wrong, how failing to please others could be dangerous, fearing others, how they may act or react to you and worrying about what they think can put you in a chronically stressed state. Instead of being hard on yourself, an act of self-love would be self-encouragement, self-appreciation and self-acceptance.
One loving mantra that I like to repeat to myself sometimes is “everything is just right, right now.” Because I can gravitate toward perfectionist thinking where I feel agitated and stressed and nervous if things don’t seem perfect, like the gardens need to be weeded or the windows need to be washed. Instead of stressing about them, and being critical and hard on myself, I look around at the beautiful flowers or areas in my home that are neat, clean and organized and with gratitude repeat “everything is just right, right now.”
Or if everything really feels not right, right now, or if you are really sick or you lose your job, or anything really challenging is happening, another act of self-love is to hold onto hope that things will get better. There is a beautiful poem by Portia Nelson called “Autobiography in Five Short Chapters”. I encourage you to check it out online sometime. It inspired me to write a similar poem that I called “Healing Journey in Three Short Chapters”.
This is the poem that starts very sad, but ends with hope.
Chapter I
I get sick.
I feel the gray cloud of depression weighing on me.
The cloud surrounds me and smothers me.
I am lost… I feel helpless.
I feel hopeless.
It takes forever for the cloud to lift.Chapter II
I get sick again.
I feel the gray cloud of depression weighing on me.
I remember the sun is still shining behind the clouds.Chapter III
I get sick again, I remember the sun is always shining and the clouds will lift.
Loving thoughts, positive mindset and holding onto hope for what good could come has a powerful effect on our healing. Any negative thought patterns and mindset can keep us in an anxious and angry state instead of a healing state.
By reframing and focusing on what is possible, intentionally choosing a positive and empowering mindset can be an example of self-love. Loving ourselves, listening to ourselves, being mindful of our thoughts and what we say to ourselves and others is powerful for healing. When our hearts and minds are filled with love, we have more love to give to others.
So to the best of your ability, maintain a strong social support network and be willing to give and receive love and help. Learn how to speak your friends and family’s love languages. Give gifts to those who love gifts, spend time with those who really appreciate quality time together, give compliments to those who appreciate words of affirmation, make a meal or help with any task for those who appreciate acts of service and give warm hugs to those who really appreciate physical touch.
Make an effort to connect with people consistently. You could go for walks with friends or meet new like-minded people by going to classes like those here at the Release Well-Being Center.
And in addition to loving relationships with others, a strong spiritual connection can give you faith that you are loved unconditionally, that you are connected to a powerful everlasting source of love, and that all things are possible.
We talked about peace and a little about love, now… Next let's talk just a little bit about the power of balance and how important it is to balance your time and your life to prioritize what you value most and reduce pressure and stress in your life. In order to find balance in your life, you first need to do some self-discovery. It is important to learn what you value most, ways that you enjoy making a positive impact and taking time for that in your life.
Having a healthy balance means putting in the big rocks first, then the stones and the sand will just fill in around it. Know your pace, set boundaries and reduce pressure and stress in your life. For each person, life balance will look different. As a unique individual you can discover what it means to have balance in all areas, relaxation and exercise, stretching and strength training, work and play, time alone and time with friends and family.
And finally I will talk now about the power of nourishment, nourishing foods and making healthy eating and drinking a sustainable habit. Nourishing your body with mostly whole foods and water to replace deficiencies and remove toxicities.
Most importantly I always suggest starting with whole foods, mostly fruits and vegetables, and keep it as simple as possible. Love and enjoy foods that love you back. From a place of love and compassion, not fear or deprivation, make self-honoring and healthy choices. Eat intuitively and sustainably as a unique bioindividual. Some people can eat tofu, nuts, seeds and beans and some people prefer meat. Some avoid all grains and some do great with some rice or gluten-free oats.
Everyone reacts differently to foods based on their unique microbiome, age, sensitivities, imbalances and deficiencies. It is very important to learn to listen to your body and eat what you enjoy most, what gives you energy and what is nourishing and strengthening to you.
You can also strategically use herbs and supplements to replace deficiencies and imbalances. Healthy whole food and clean water is healing and medicine to your mind and body. Too much processed food, sugar and alcohol are toxic and disruptive to your healing process.
What you eat and drink are very important, what is also important is how much, how frequently and how you eat the food. How much should you eat? This depends on many factors including your wellness goals, but in general you eat enough to satisfy your hunger, about 75% full, and enough to give you sustainable energy until your next meal about 3 to 4 hours later.
That leads to how frequently should you eat? About every 3 or 4 hours, enough time to let your food digest completely between meals and still have enough energy. If you start to feel hungry in between meals, then it may not be hunger but thirst, that is the optimal time to hydrate with water. Add a little sea salt and lemon to make it more interesting and hydrating, like a natural healthy gatorade. Also, it is important to stop eating a few hours before you lay down to go to bed. This is important for many reasons, including avoiding blood sugar spikes during the night, digestive problems and acid reflux, due to laying down too soon after a big meal!
And finally how you eat the food. Ideally this will be when you are calm and relaxed and not rushing around or driving. Ideally this would be a moment of rest and mindfulness and gratitude. You take the time to appreciate and smell your food to get the saliva and digestive enzymes flowing, chew the food up really well to begin the process of digestion, then stay relaxed while the food is being processed. This can all be very helpful.
There are many many things I could talk about concerning nourishment, food, drink, fasting, but I will wrap it up here for now.
By practicing peace, love, balance and nourishment as a lifelong habit, you are putting yourself in a position to have sustainable health and well-being. I believe a healthy and fulfilling life is one where you are experiencing mind-body wellness, loving relationships and have opportunities to make a positive impact on the people and world around you.