Pain Hurts! (no kidding) What to Do About It
Under the auspices of the Virginia Department of Health, Prince William Area Agency on Aging, I completed the certification coursework for teaching people how to deal with chronic illness. Then, the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and the final practice classes were canceled. However, I learned about several things that influence chronic conditions, including pain, and most of them confirm what I already knew and have talked about as a certified practitioner of healing modalities over many years. You may have seen my posts or have been in my classes about:
Influences Affecting Chronic Pain Levels
- balancing emotions – establishing methods – (e.g., physical activity, meditation, listening to music, hypnotherapy, counseling, etc.) for relieving anxiety and depression
- breathing – shallowly or consciously, deeply, and purposefully (There are many techniques with differing emphasis on various parts of the body.)
- evaluating nutritional intake – proper – or inflammatory and bone-deconstructing foods and drinks
- exercising – mental (learning helpful, practical skills; keeping mentally alert; distracting oneself from pain)
- exercising – physical (how much, when, and whether to do it while in pain) (aerobic exercise for immobile people – the chi machine)
- making decisions – avoided or done well (with the help of a coach, counselor, or caregiver, if necessary)
- sleeping – well or poorly (the amount needed and techniques for inducing restful sleep and for avoiding disrupted sleep. Since I’m not going into detail here, I’ll just share the link to my Sleep Like a Baby guided meditation which is available wherever you get your audio media. It put the sound engineer to sleep mid-recording session!)
- using self-management tasks, like:
- scheduling medications and making lists of questions for health care providers
- acquiring tools and other aids needed to accomplish functions that used to be easy (like step stools for reaching high shelves or shoe hooks for inserting feet into shoes without having to bend down)
- creating a plan to address emergencies
- using holistic healing modalities, like Reiki, massage, hypnotherapy, and natural foods and herbs. Click Here for more tools and tips.