Do you live in a responsive or a reactive state?
Do you perpetually feel poised ready for anything to come your way or are you able to relax and meet life in a calm state?
People who suffer with chronic pain often lack inhibitory behaviour, which is a reflection of the hyper vigilance of their nervous system.
This can prove difficult when trying to complete a rehabilitation program, as many of the exercises challenge the nervous system before it is ready. These clients will often not be able to carry through isometric exercises past a certain point. The instinct to quit as soon as the load challenges the nervous system overrides the ability to endure the discomfort.
Many of us walk around with our shoulders drawn up to our ears, shoulder blades pinched together and jaws clamped tight. The nervous system is constantly expecting something dire to happen. In reality, if something did come our way that would require action, we would have to relax, organize in the direction of said attack, and re-tension to meet the requirements of this threat.
It is much more efficient to step out of this hyper vigilance and meet the world in a relaxed, responsive state.
My favourite visualization is from Norman Doidge’s book The Brain’s Way of Healing. Michael Moskowitz suffered an accident that left him in extreme pain for years. He discovered that there are 9 known pain processing areas in the brain.
The longer we focus on our pain, the rule of neuroplasticity says these neural pathways continue to fire in this direction and forge like a highway. These neural pathways will also begin to take up more ‘real estate’ in the brain, meaning the pain processing areas become larger.
When the brain prioritizes one function over another it will often inhibit functions such as speech, reasoning, and empathy.
Moskowitz’s method visualizes these pain regions and imagines shrinking them back to their original size. This takes these neurons from a reactive to a responsive state.
Rather than expecting pain, or expecting a threat, the nervous system maintains a responsive disposition. This allows for the availability of cognitive faculties so we are actually able to assess a situation and respond rather than reacting emotionally.
Health and Light,