I often hear my clients say they have become afraid. Fearful of moving because it hurts to move. I regularly hear they have lost confidence in their bodies. Because they never know when it will betray them. They feel they cannot depend on their body, as pain and limitations may set in any moment.
They say to me, “Patrick, why does my body not do what I want it to do? Why this pain and these limitations all the time? It drives me crazy!”. As a postural therapist one of my jobs is to restore faith in my client’s bodies. So here is a 3-step approach to becoming pain free.
3 steps to conquering the (fear of) pain
- The first step is to understand what is going on. In order to solve a problem you first have to understand it. It is my job to help you figure out why you are in pain. When we understand this, we can work on a plan to restoring your body’s function and get you out of pain. Pain is a signal the body is sending you. Something is wrong. It is up to you to figure out what. I am helping you by being an interpreter of sorts. Pain is not something to fear, it is something to understand. There is a reason your posture is not perfect. The body is trying its best to solve your functional problems. If, due to your activities (or lack thereof) one hip is less functional, it tries to solve this problem by introducing rotation or giving you a wider stance. The body is a survival machine and will do all it takes to keep you moving.
- In the second step we go from understanding to solving the problem. Posture therapy works by understanding the pain signals of the body, by connecting posture to pain and to select exercises to improve posture and reduce pain. Improving posture, by doing specific exercises, is a means to the end of becoming pain free. So by improving the function of your muscles and joints, these compensations will disappear and as a result your posture will improve. By improving your hip function, the rotation and wide stance will improve and as a result, your pain will diminish.
- The third and last step is to stay on top of things. I will help you understand what is going on in your body and provide you with quality exercises to work on those problems. Then it is up to you do do your part. Just like a dentist can work on you for a while but then send you home to brush and floss the teeth you want to keep. You live in your body, I don’ So you will need tools to keep it healthy and I can help you with that.
The end result? You not only become pain free but you also get rid of the fear of pain. You trust your body again, also because you understand it better. And you have learned to interpret its signals and know what to do next time you are in pain! Fear often comes from what we don’t understand. Once you do understand, the fear often goes away. A bright future awaits!
If you have any questions let me know, I’d be glad to answer them!