Pain Has A Purpose
I know that pain is a nuisance and when it shows up in your life all you want is for it to GO AWAY.
But pain does not come out of no where for no reason. Pain is always the result of a dysfunction. Pain is always trying to tell you something.
When you are experiencing pain take a moment to pause and appreciate how incredibly smart and capable your body truly is. You don't have to think about it at all and your heart still beats, your lungs still breathe, every cell in your body is undergoing thousands of chemical changes every second....
When you consider the miracle of being alive it becomes easier to recognize that your body knows what it's doing and would not create pain on accident. Pain is, in fact, a protective mechanism.
The body is intelligent. Pain has a purpose. Pay attention to it.
For example, many people who have been working from home come into my office with neck pain and lower back pain.
The first thing I ask is "how are the ergonomics of your at-home work set up?".
The second thing I ask is "how many hours a day are you sitting?".
I frequently discover that the at-home office set up is less than ideal and that most of the day is spent sitting.
Well, your body is in pain because it is trying to tell you that you need to change what you are doing!
You can:
- Get a sit/stand desk
- Schedule 10 minute movement breaks every 50 minutes
- Use a wireless keyboard and mouse if you are working on a laptop so that you can raise your screen to eye level
- Consult a professional (such as myself) for specific exercises and stretches that will target the problem area that you can do DAILY
- Ideally, do ALL of the above
The alternative is to either
a) ignore the pain until it gets so bad that you have no choice but to pay attention, or
b) take medication to again, ignore the pain until it get so bad that the medication isn't cutting it anymore and you are forced to pay attention.
Pain is how your body demands your attention, makes you slooooowwww down and lets you know that something isn't working. The joints, muscles and tissues are irritated and dysfunctional as a result of some habit or behavior you are engaged in.
So, my recommendation is....
GET CURIOUS about your pain.
Ask yourself, what is my body trying to tell me? What makes the pain better? What makes the pain worse? What might have caused this pain in the first place?
Essentially, what am I doing that is making my body unhappy? And what can I do going forward to bring more ease into my body?
Having self awareness and changing your behavior is KEY. As is getting proper care to help the body heal.
SEEK CHIROPRACTIC CARE to help eliminate the pain and get to the root cause of the issue.
Chiropractic helps to restore the proper motion of the joints, muscles and tissues which decreases pain, tightness, tension and irritation.
Even more importantly, chiropractic care helps your brain & your body communicate better with one another, which allows you to actually heal and adapt more effectively in the future.
Chiropractic is focused on lifelong health & wellness with pain reduction being a nice side effect :)
If there is a chronic injury or degeneration the goal is to improve your function and decrease your pain to the best of our ability, but there are some 'limitations of matter' or irreversible damage that can make the healing process more difficult.
Regardless of the chronicity or severity of your pain I encourage you to see it as a teacher and be open to the lessons it provides.