The MindBody Connection - in simple words

Have you ever gone red with embarrassment? Have you ever felt itchy after someone mentioned lice?! Have you ever had goose-bumps whilst watching a movie? Have your tears ever welled up when you remembered a deeply sad moment? (Sshh – have you ever been aroused watching an erotic scene? - I’m going red writing this…😉).

Those are all every day, perfectly normal occurrences and reactions in your body - as a result of every day, normal thoughts in your mind. They are every day, perfectly normal examples of the mindbody connection.

The same applies with pain - it is another example of the mindbody connection. Normal, everyday thoughts, especially those connected with emotion, past & present, can exacerbate or even create pain felt in our body – & yes, even without any physical “damage” being present.

Pain Brain - Brain Pain

You see, all pain that we feel is the result of processing in our brain. The brain not only relies on information coming from the body (muscles, organs, etc) in order to reach its conclusion to produce pain or not - it processes that information together with emotion, current threat level, past experience, thoughts, knowledge & beliefs (L Moseley, PhD). All at the speed of lightening. All the time.

If we look more closely at these factors, you may start to see how that mindbody connection might possibly create "false" errors in its processing - leading us to feel pain even when there is no damage or injury in our body.

The good news: when we know & accept the complexity behind human pain & the mindbody connection, we can better understand what our bodies may be trying to tell us - & help us in our journey to relief & recovery.

Emotion

Forms of emotion are almost endless - & some of us are more aware and feel emotion more than others. But we all have them. Suppressed or not... Fear, anxiety, anger, sadness, happiness... and innumerable other descriptions & variables in between.

But emotion is not just an “intangible feeling”. Molecules of emotion are produced & flush throughout the body, affecting every cell (Candace B Pert, PhD), including sensitising nerves & increasing muscle tension.

You may have experienced pain increasing when you were angry or scared. But did you know that the same occurs even when emotions such as fear and anger are suppressed (from habits learned in childhood, such as maintaining a “stiff upper lip”, "boys musn't cry", "girls mustn't show anger", etc)? The same emotional molecular/chemical response still happens, but just without your conscious awareness. Emotions, suppressed, subconscious or not, affect pain. Particularly with longer-term pain, the emotional centres of the brain and pain are highly interrelated.

Threat Level, Stress & Pain

When you think or feel you are in danger (real or perceived), the well-known automatic fight or flight response you learnt about at school kicks in. Part of this is the production of the stress/emotional chemicals mentioned above (eg adrenaline, cortisol & histamine) - preparing you for your fight or flight for survival:

Heart rate increases; gut activity reduces; blood flow to the muscles increases; at the same time blood flow reduces to the skin (eg we go white with fear!), neocortex of the brain & reproductive organs; glucose stores release into the blood; salivation slows; and, as alluded to above, the speed of nerve conduction increases, including nerves involved with pain.

So, threat, stress, anxiety all affect pain.

Past Experience

If in the past your mind has come to connect (consciously or not) a certain movement, position or event with a response (eg pain), the brain uses that information to help process a response again in the future – ie when you repeat that movement, position or event it produces pain again. This is part of the brain's natural predictive-coding capability.

As you may expect, the more something is repeated, the more reinforced & automatic the connection becomes (eg think of Pavlov’s well-known dog food/bell/salivation response experiment, which you may also have learnt about in school).

And if you add emotion, such as fear, onto a movement, position or event, it acts to reinforce the response (eg more pain). So, past experience can produce pain even when there's nothing "wrong".

Thoughts

Simply put, even a thought of an emotional past experience or future fear can create the same fight or flight response and cascade of chemicals affecting every cell & organ in your body.

Just a thought can thus impact the pain you feel.

Knowledge & Beliefs

Knowledge & beliefs are closely connected with one another – because if you have incorrect / outdated knowledge, then your thoughts, understanding, rationalization & beliefs can all become skewed.

For example, if you were taught once upon a time that really bad back pain was because something really bad must have happened to your back, or that your spine is a weak structure, or that you may end up in a wheelchair (all nonsense) – then you will incorrectly believe that back pain is to be feared, deeply, & that you may never get better.

Knowledge, beliefs & our resultant emotions affect pain.

Now, Put All these Factors Together:

Modern life has become full of threat & stress - building up our background anxiety: driving on our hyperbusy motorways, in the rain, in the dark; overcrowded commuting; relentless tech issues; online scams; problematic work environment; job stability & financial worries; harassment; difficult relationships; juggling family & work commitments; COVID 19 & the survival threat; poor sleep patterns & volume; living up to social media expectations; self-torment over perceived poor willpower with diet/exercise/etc… the list goes on.

Put this modern life together with past experience, incorrect knowledge/misinformation, misbeliefs and emotion - it's a perfect storm for the brewing of persisting pain.

The Good News: A Rainbow Shines in The Storm

You can “untrick” & rewire your brain - & relieve your pain - with up-to-date knowledge, simple, everyday strategies & inexpensive tools – like a pen & paper. You just have to learn what they are and then be consistent & persistent in their practice.

Relief & recovery from persistent / chronic pain is possible, & not as difficult as you may have been led to believe: By learning how to change & calm the processes of your mind, you'll be able to change the result felt in your body.

Look out for helpful strategies in blogs to come - & lots of books are already written on this life-transforming subject of recovery from chronic pain – see my website www.CatherinePollitt.co.uk/resources for further guiding details.

Important Caveat: Soft tissues generally heal naturally with the right advice & conditions in 6-12 weeks, so it is important to note that any pain that continues beyond this should first be cleared of underlying medical problems by your doctor.

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