The worst part of my ordeal was the mental pain and being bombarded with unpleasant and intrusive thoughts. It was the most disturbing aspect of it all and the more I did battle with them, the more intense they became. I had already slipped into an “internal OCD” (obsessive compulsive disorder) five years earlier. It  manifested with repetitive disturbing thoughts that I countered with positive thoughts. Internal OCD does not have external characteristics such as hand washing and counting.

I had begun the expressive writing about six months earlier with a lot of success. My anxiety and other physical symptoms had diminished but I was still struggling on many fronts.

“I am a victim”

On Mother’s Day of 2002, I suddenly realized what being a victim entailed and saw that I was deeply enmeshed inthat role. Up to that point, I had no idea that I was even angry. I was just “right” and “frustrated.” But since I had so many legitimate reasons for feeling this way, I never considered myself as angry. In fact, my concept was that I had dealt with anger and had moved on. Nothing could have been further from the truth.

I felt a deep shift and over the next six weeks, more of my physical symptoms began to resolve, with the most unexpected one being that the ringing in my ears (tinnitus) decreased dramatically. After 25 years of dealing with it, I had assumed that it was a permanent symptom. However, many of the disturbing thoughts persisted and were interfering with my capacity to enjoy my life. I felt stuck.

The circus mirrors

One day, I suddenly had an image of myself standing in front of the kind of reflecting mirrors that you see in the circus. I was staring at repeating versions of  myself, going into infinity. I could see the battle playing out in my brain – a disruptive thought followed by a  counterthought – without an end. This had been playing out in me for years. I realized that there was nothing I could do and I “gave up.” I had reached a point where I had to let go. I truly became deeply discouraged yet at the same time, this realization was accompanied by a deep physical feeling of release. I was perplexed.

I continued to use all the tools of writing, mindfulness, forgiveness, etc. But with my new outlook, I began to move forward with my life and within six months most of my physical and mental symptoms (Including the obsessive thoughts) had dramatically abated. I didn’t realize it at the time, but it turned out that letting go and moving on was the definitive answer. This was well before I understood the concepts of neuroplasticity. Your brain develops whereveryou place your attention and I had been reinforcing the problem by trying to fix it.

Take a break

My patients and I frequently discuss the idea of taking a break from The DOC Journey. They have been diligent in reading, writing, not discussing their pain or medical care, meditating, processing anger, and even working hard at play. But they continued to be frustrated because, even though their pain had diminished, their anxiety levels remained too high, upsetting thoughts continued to bombard them, and they still didn’t have the quality of life that would allow them to thrive.

Perfectionism came into play in that he or she wanted to be the best student and really do it right. But the harder they worked at it, their neurologic energy was still directed at themselves. Inadvertently, by stimulating neuroplastic changes towards the problem, they were reinforcing these unpleasant neurological circuits.

Remember that the victim role (including perfectionism) is so powerful, you will never want to give it up – even afteryou have felt how free you can be. It is too strong of a survival need. The  decision to let go of the victim role is a day-by-day decision, sometimes a minute-by-minute one. Being triggered is inherent to being alive, and you have to decide if and when you want to let go, and when you are ready, just do it. I have not found an alternative and logic doesn’t work. I call it, “flipping the switch.”

Bill

Occasionally, at the end of an office visit, I asked my patient to sit in the exam room and not leave until they committed to “letting go” of the victim role. They may have sat for 10-20 minutes before they left. Walking out the door was symbolic of them stepping into their new life. It was surprising how effective that simple action could be.

Bill was a middle-aged, small-business owner who had been in chronic pain for over twenty years. He had done quite well with the DOC principles, along with the help of one my colleagues. One day Bill was triggered by one of his business partners and fell deeply back into the Abyss of pain and despair, to a depth he had not experienced before. He was becoming suicidal. Unfortunately for me—but fortunately for others— through my own experience, I gained extensive insights into suicide and realized that anger is what pounds your soul into the ground. Bill was in an extreme victim mode. I called him out on it during an extremely intense conversation. Although it was nerve wracking for both of us,  it clicked. He sat in the exam room for about half an hour.  When I saw him back a few months later, he was achanged man and re-entering the workforce.

A friend sent me this poem:

“She Just Let Go”

She let go. Without a thought or a word, she let go.

She let go of the fear. She let go of the judgments.

She let go of the confluence of opinions swarming around her head

She let go of the committee of indecision within her.

She let go of all the “right” reasons. Wholly and completely, without hesitation or worry,

She just let go.

She didn’t ask anyone for advice.

She didn’t read a book on how to let go….

She didn’t search the scriptures.

She just let go.

She let go of all of the memories that held her back.

She let go of all the anxiety that kept her from moving forward.

She let go of the planning and all of the calculations about how to do it just right.

She didn’t promise to let go.

She didn’t journal about it.

She didn’t write the projected date in her day timer.

She made no public announcement and put no ad in the paper.

She didn’t check the weather report or read her daily horoscope.

She just let go.

She didn’t analyze whether she should let go.

She didn’t call her friends to discuss the matter.

She didn’t do a five-step Spiritual Mind Treatment.

She didn’t call the prayer line.

She didn’t utter one word.

She just let go.

No one was around when it happened.

There was no applause or congratulations.

No one thanked her or praised her.

No one noticed a thing.

Like a leaf falling from a tree,

She just let go.

There was no effort. There was no struggle.

It wasn’tgood, and it wasn’t bad.

It was what it was, and it is just that.

In the space of letting go, she let it all be.

A small smile came over her face.

A light breeze blew through her.

And the sun and the moon shone forevermore.

–Rev. Safire Rose

This poem “She Just Let Go” by Reverend Safire Rose beautifully conveys the essence of The DOC Journey. Letting go is the simplest and simultaneously the most difficult aspect of the healing process. Our anger is powerful and often legitimate. We are accustomed to fixing others and ourselves, but our attention is still on our flaws and those of others. Too much attention to shortcomings inadvertently strengthens our unpleasant neurological circuits.

The DOC Journey provides guidance and tools to get to a place where you are able to let go. The freedom you will experience is remarkable. For me, it was unlike anything I had ever experienced in my life. Watching people enter this realm is inspiring and is a major factor in motivating me to keep me moving forward with this project.

Reconnecting with Your True Self

On Saturday, November 6th, Dr. Les Aria, a friend of mine, and I are holding a workshop that is being hosted through The Open Center in New York. We will be discussing both the process of letting go using specific strategies to connect to the best part of who you are. The intention is for you to leave with a clear concept of the power of the unconscious survival mind, how to develop a “working relationship” with it, and move forward into the life you desire. Click this link to take a look at the course and register.

The post “She Just Let Go” first appeared on Back in Control.

The post “She Just Let Go” appeared first on Back in Control.

• Connecting with your sense of play is one of the most powerful ways of shifting your physiology from threat to safety.
• Play circuits are also simply more pleasant.
• Everyone has some level of play in their life, although for some, it is quite limited.
• The interactions created while at play is one of the basic ways humans learn to cooperate with each other, including reading body language, interpreting tone of voice, and negotiating boundaries.
• When suffering from chronic anxiety and other symptoms, play circuits are used less and don’t evolve.
• Nurturing a sense of play and joy is a learned skill that requires thoughtful repetitions. These are not usually taught to us throughout our life experience,
• The benefits of reconnecting with play are healing and have a significant impact on your health and quality of life.

This is the real secret of life –

to be completely engaged with what you are doing

in the here and now.

And instead of calling it work,

realize it is play.

~Alan W. Watts

Play is a physiological state that reflects a sense of safety. You cannot play or feel playful if you are in a survival mode. The essence of escaping from the grip of crippling anxiety is feeling safe. In this state your body is full of relaxing chemicals such as oxytocin (love/bonding drug), serotonin (antidepressant), GABA hormones (anti-anxiety), dopamine (rewards), and small anti-inflammatory proteins called cytokines. Your metabolic rate (fuel consumption) also drops, which allows your energy reserves to be replenished. This scenario not only creates a deep sense of well-being, but it is also healing.

The data regarding the devastating effects of chronic stress on your mental and physical health is extensive and deep. Prolonged exposure to the body’s neurochemical survival response predictably causes illness and disease and shortens life.^1,2,3

Research also shows that cultivating optimism, having a sense of purpose, and feeling hopeful has the opposite effect. When people learned how to skillfully process their stress and nurture joy, they experienced an improvement in anxiety and many other symptoms.⁴ One paper had participants visualizing their best self for five minutes a day over a course of two weeks. They all noted significant improvements in anxiety.⁵

 Play

In our workshops, we discovered that shared play is a powerful force and most of the participants had a significant improvement in their anxiety and pain during the three or five – day events. It happened after people began to relax, share, let go, and laugh together. We initially didn’t understand reasons why people could shift so quickly after being so miserable for years. I now understand that anxiety reflects a sustained inflammatory state that also causes many other symptoms. Feeling connected to others in a relaxing environment stimulates the release of oxytocin. Oxytocin is a hormone that is critical for social bonding and is also powerfully anti-inflammatory. The participants felt safe in this setting and several people commented that they felt like they were in an “adult summer camp.”

Of course, when they returned home to their triggers, their anxiety and pain would reappear. But now they not only possessed new knowledge and tools, but they had reconnected to feeling playful, and relaxed. Many had not felt that way for years. Now they had a memory that they could return to and over time, and they became skilled at it. Years later, many have continued to thrive.

The basis of The DOC Journey is learning how to re-program your brain away from embedded anxiety circuits by stimulating neuroplastic changes in the brain. This requires repetition and eventually it becomes automatic. However, you can make this change happen even faster by shifting onto pre-existing play circuits.

All mammals have play as a part of their development. It is a multi-dimensional experience that processes many environmental cues and reactions are learned that are appropriate to the situation. Play is a core step in how we developed language and consciousness. Even if they feel deeply buried or almost non-existent, your play circuits are there, waiting to be accessed.⁶ Any skill that is not practiced will fade, but those neural circuits can be re-awakened.

As you use the playful part of your brain more and spend less time feeling anxious, your brain’s structure and neurological activity physically changes and grows . Conversely, when you experience chronic stress, your brain physically shrinks. Fortunately, as you heal and create more connections, it re-expands.⁷

I used to play trumpet in high school

An example of how this works is to consider a skill you had in middle or high school. Without practice, it has faded, but the memory is still there. I played trumpet in high school and a little bit in college as well. I could play reasonably well through medical school, but it all disappeared in the midst of the rigors of residencies and fellowships. I recently picked it back up, and although I have no lip strength or dexterity, I still remember the basic techniques and hope to re-connect with them quickly. It is doable, whereas if I were to try to learn a completely new instrument, it would take much longer.

My wife started playing the guitar again after a 30-year hiatus, and within a few weeks, was able to finger-pick like the old days. One day, it just all came back to her, and she  quickly progressed beyond where she left off.

The same is true for you – your play circuits are still there, waiting to be re-vitalized.

A deliberate decision

Many years ago, I was pondering my own journey out of The Abyss and considering some additional approaches. It hit me that the words “work” and “play” are somewhat arbitrary. I realized that my vacations were spent largely with trying to recover from the rigors of work. I didn’t have the energy to fully engage in enjoying my time off.

Much of the problem had to do with how I viewed work and my strong reactions in dealing with the challenges of being a spine surgeon. I decided that I would work on removing those labels from my life.

If I loved my work, and spent most of my waking hours doing it, why call it work? I decided to just embrace the whole experience. My entire team relaxed, and I enjoyed my patients, fellows, and colleagues a lot more. We had fun to the point where sometimes we would have to work on toning it down while we were in clinic.

At the same time, one of my mentors told me, “Challenges are an opportunity to practice your stress-coping skills and are part of any endeavor.” I began to embrace challenges head on and my reactions to stress dropped dramatically. By seeing problems as opportunities, I was both more effective and engaged with the difficult aspects of my job. This simple paradigm shift created a world of difference.

Play is a mindset

A word of caution – I am not referring to play as a way to distract yourself from your suffering. You can’t outrun your mind. Rather, it is mindset of curiosity, deep gratitude, listening, anticipation, awareness, and improving your skills to calm your nervous system. Nothing initially has to change in your life. My work environment was unchanged. It was my attitude that changed. I chose different words every day to reflect a sense of play. The result was a sense of contentment and peace.

Remember, nurturing joy is a learned skill along with processing  stress. You will eventually become an expert. At some tipping point, you’ll simply refuse to let people or situations ruin your day. You’ll also progress to being a source of peace and vitality. That is a long way from being trapped by anxiety and pain,

Recap – Moving forward

Play is one of the most effective ways to give your nervous system cues of safety. However, in the presence of relentless anxiety and pain, this probably seems impossible, and it is without effective tools and an approach that works well for you. You must simultaneously learn to de-energize anxiety and anger while nurturing safety.

Play to distract yourself from unpleasant feelings doesn’t work and is actually counterproductive. You cannot outrun your mind and your inflammatory markers go straight up. Conversely, living life with connection and purpose causes them to plummet.⁸

Choose play –  every day and watch your life transform.

Questions and considerations

1. Have you noticed that much of your vacation is spent trying to recuperate from work? By viewing work as play, you may have more energy to enjoy your time off.
2. You have heard the phrase, “don’t sweat the small stuff.” This is another way of letting go and simply enjoying your day.
3. There are many ways to connect with play. They include deep gratitude, a sense of curiosity, cultivating a sense of humor, and consistently choosing joy as opposed to complaining or feeling like a victim. When where you taught to nurture these traits?
4. As you continue to make these choices, your brain will begin to move in this direction automatically. Consider how much your brain is being programmed with negative self-talk and external messaging.
5. Notice how your mood affects those close to you. A good mood is contagious because it directly stimulates a similar area of the other person’s brain through “mirror neurons.” Conversely, a negative mindset is also having a ripple effect.

References

1. Tennant F. The physiologic effects of pain on the endocrine system. Pain Ther. 2013;2(2):75-86.
2. Torrance N, Elliott AM, Lee AJ, Smith BH. Severe chronic pain is associated with increased 10-year mortality: a cohort record linkage study. Eur J Pain. 2010;14(4):380-386.
3. Rahe R, et al. “Social stress and illness onset.” J Psychosomatic Research (1964); 8: 35.
4. Hausmann, LRM, et al. Reduction of bodily pain in response to an online positive activities intervention. Jrn of Pain (2014); 15: 560-567.
5. Meevissen,YMC, et al. Become more optimistic by imagining a best possible self: Effects of a two-week intervention. Jrn of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry (2011); 42: 371-378.
6. Brown, Stuart, and Christopher Vaughan. Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul. Penguin Group, New York, NY, 2009.
7. Seminowicz, David A., et al. “Effective Treatment of Chronic Low Back Pain in Humans Reverses Abnormal Brain Anatomy and Function.” The Journal of Neuroscience (2011); 31: 7540-7550.
8. Cole SW, et al. Social Regulation of gene expression in human leukocytes. Genome Biology (200); 8:R189. doi: 10.1186/gb-2007-8-9-r189

The post Healing through Play – It is Safety Physiology first appeared on Back in Control.

The post Healing through Play – It is Safety Physiology appeared first on Back in Control.

However, you cannot go from pain to play without tools and strategies. It is too big of a leap. The impact of chronic pain on your quality of life has been documented to be equivalent to suffering from terminal cancer – except that it is even worse.¹ We acknowledge the severity of your suffering, and it is why I use the term, “The Abyss” to describe how dark this place is.

Two aspects of healing

The DOC Journey app considers the healing process in two ways that are interconnected.

• Efficiently processing stress – the protective reactions of anxiety and anger. They are gifts that allowed us to evolve and how we survive. You must develop a “working relationship” with them. They are what you inherently possess, but not who you are. This is a necessary skill set in that you can’t move forward without letting go.
• Moving into your life’s vision of what you desire. This is where the deep healing occurs. The strategies you’ll learn will stimulate your brain to physically change (neuroplasticity). As you move away from the pain circuits and more pleasurable ones are nurtured, you will thrive.

Play for the sake of play

You cannot use play and pleasure to distract yourself from being in pain. Anxiety, anger, and pain are too powerful. It is why the healing journey consists of separate facets –  neutralizing the survival circuits and moving into safety. It is a dynamic process with no beginning or end. It’s life.

Visualize your life as a bathtub. The water flowing in through the faucet represents the enjoyable, rejuvenating parts of life. Then picture an unusually large drain that represents anxiety and anger. When you’re agitated and anxious, the drain is wide open, and it won’t matter how much water you run into the tub, it will never fill up. It’s impossible to build up your energy reserves enough to heal.

The DOC Journey app will teach you ways to dynamically plug the drain. You will use them multiple times a day indefinitely, and they quickly become automatic. However, this step alone doesn’t create healing or give you a good life.

To have an enjoyable life, you must live an enjoyable life.

Now imagine running the bath water with the drain closed. You’ve learned how to effectively process your stresses, so you can relax in the tub and enjoy yourself. You can create whatever life you desire. These learned skills are a bit challenging when you are used to spending so much of your life’s energy escaping from pain.

Similar to learning a new language, your brain will develop in whatever direction you place your attention (neuroplasticity). You cannot learn French by fixing your English. The default language for humans is survival and pain. Trying to fix yourself focuses your attention on the problem and reinforces these pain circuits. Learning French requires repetition and practice. In order to experience and enjoyable life, you must live and nurture it. This is where deep healing occurs.

The physiology of threat and safety

Physiology is the term used to describe the operations of your body. It is largely unconscious, automatic, incredibly complex, and powerful.

ANXIETY/ PAIN

Anxiety is a physiological state. It is the sensation you experience when you sense real or perceived danger. Your body is being directed to mobilize resources to enhance your chances of survival. It is intended to be deeply unpleasant so as to mobilize you to take action to optimize your actions and function (physiology) to live another day.

It is well documented in the medical literature that chronic stress kills. Why? It is because when you are exposed to threats in any form, your body goes into a defensive survival state of “flight or fight” where you are consuming energy. When this is sustained, your body utilizes energy from your own tissues, including tendons, ligaments, fat cells, internal organs, brain cells by breaking them down. This response also includes the powerful immune system, which is intended to ward off cancer cells, viruses, bacteria, and any foreign invaders. However, when it remains fired up, your inflammatory cells will also attack and destroy your own tissues. The end results are mental and physical symptoms, illnesses, and diseases.

Humans have and additional trait in that we possess language and consciousness. Although there are many benefits, there is a severe downside that I call, “The Curse of Consciousness.” Thoughts are sensory input that also create this threat physiological state. Since we cannot escape them, every person is subjected to some level of ongoing stress physiology.

SAFETY/ PLAY

Play is also a physiological state and the home run for healing. It is necessary for your body to be in a safe state in order to rest and regenerate to build up your reserves for inevitable daily threats. When you are in a “rest and digest” state, you are repairing tissues and storing fuel.

The essence of chronic mental and physical disease is sustained exposure to threats. The foundation of sustaining life is minimizing your exposure to fight or flight chemistry and maximizing your time in safety.

The DOC Journey app

The DOC Journey app will help you create experiences to relax and relearn to play. The optimum chemical composition for your health is when you are laughing and connected to the present moment. The sequence of the app is based on the following:

• Awareness – necessary for solving any challenge
• Hope – an anti-inflammatory powerful healing force
• Letting go/ processing anger – you can’t move forward while holding onto the past.
• Moving forward/ Play – a profound shift in your body’s chemistry

The app is educational and also has a toolbox you can easily access anytime. The best part of this journey though, is that you’ll learn to “Wake the fun up” – and thrive.

Recap

Visualize trying to cross a large scenic mountain lake while rowing a boat with a big hole in the bottom of it. The boat is slowly sinking, and you can’t easily both bail and navigate. Most of your efforts are focused on trying to stay afloat, and you don’t much energy left to take in the beautiful view and experience peace.

The hole again represents the drain created by ongoing anxiety and frustration. Trying to outrun your automatic survival reactions can’t and doesn’t work. Processing stress and creating your vision are two separate but intertwined aspects of healing. Once you can efficiently plug the hole, you’ll have the energy to live and enjoy your life journey.

Prepare yourself to navigate your life. Do it now because it won’t just happen. You have only one shot at this human experience.

References

1. Fredheim OM, Kaasa S, Fayers P, Saltnes T, Jordhøy M, Bortchgrevink PC. Chronic non-malignant pain patients report as poor health-related quality of life as palliative cancer patients. Acta Anaesthesiol Scand )2008); 52:143-148.

The post “Wake the Fun Up” – The DOC Journey App first appeared on Back in Control.

The post “Wake the Fun Up” – The DOC Journey App appeared first on Back in Control.

My wife, Babs, and stepdaughter, Jasmine, and I have done these workshops together since 2013. Each year, we are energized and inspired by the shifts in mood, outlook, and physical symptoms that occur within a just few days. We have been perplexed for years why this is such a consistent outcome and the last few years of neuroscience research has now explained what happens. It revolves around experiencing threat versus safety.

Fight or flight/ rest and digest

Any mental or physical threat, real or perceived, fires up your body’s flight or fight response through the sympathetic nervous system. The reaction includes stress hormones, inflammation, and elevated metabolism (fuel consumption); and you are on alert, anxious, and agitated. If the perception of danger is prolonged, then your body will respond with many different symptoms and often illness. Chronic stress (threat) keeps you in this heighted state and has been documented in many studies to be deadly. (1)

The essence of the solution lies in finding safety, which creates a “rest and digest” state that allows you to regenerate, drop inflammation, and slow down your metabolism; you feel relaxed with less pain. There are many ways to induce this state of safety. The workshop creates an atmosphere that allows this to happen. Dr. Robert Dantzer and several other researchers wrote an extensive review looking at the interaction of social factors influencing inflammation (pain) and how the inflammatory condition impacts your behaviors. (2) The main ones with most impact are:

• Social connection
• Positive affect (emotional state)
• Sense of control
• Optimism/ Hope

These workshops address all these issues and each of them is calming and directly anti-inflammatory communicated through the Vagus nerve (10^th cranial nerve). Dr. Stephen Porges, through his research and writing on the Polyvagal theory, has nicely laid out the afferent input into the midbrain and its efferent output allows safe human interaction. (3)

Social Connection

There are few times and places where you can feel safe with others. Life is competitive and it’s challenging to get a break. School has many layers of stress. Bullying is rampant. Close friends often turn on each other. Social media has intruded on privacy and quiet time. Research has shown that only about a third of families are relatively free of chaos. Other stressful arenas include sports, music, the arts, employment, and social status. Where’s there a place to rest?

We quickly realized that we didn’t have to do much after we set up the weekend. Participants in a safe and structured setting healed each other. It was also a remarkable experience for us being in the presence of those who are so supportive of each other. Oxytocin is a bonding hormone that is secreted in safe and social situations and is anti-inflammatory.

Positive affect/ play

The  weekend is also focused on re-connecting people with each other by sharing enjoyable experiences. Many of the activities are held in small groups of four or five. Participants can feel safe and it’s remarkable how quickly healing occurs. Much of the weekend is spent in play, which is a great venue to feel safe.

Babs and Jasmine are important contributors by leading you in rhythm, song, relaxation exercises, and sharing.

 Sense of control (The “ring of fire”)

There are many tools that allow you to regulate your own body’s neurochemistry and responses to threats. Just this sense of control is anti-inflammatory. Additionally, understanding the nature of chronic mental and physical pain will enable you to personalize solutions.

Awareness of your current state of being is the first step and we use a tool called, “The Ring of Fire.” Being aware of which color you are in at the moment, allows you to choose your direction. The green center is where you rest and regenerate. Blue is “life.” The red ring of anxiety and frustration is an inherent part of life that must be navigated skillfully. The goal is to be able to exist in any part of the “circle of life” on your own terms.

Hope/ optimism

People in chronic pain lose hope. The loss of hope contributes to the actual pain by increasing inflammation by speeding up nerve conduction. We will be sharing many stories of hope with the group. Regaining hope is powerful.

Comments from prior classes

“I’m still high from the weekend. And off all pain meds (even Advil) after 10 years on opioids…………..    Interesting how the class responded to my hooping (hula hoop). I can see Babs and Jaz doing a session, maybe a half-hour?  What do you think? Neuroplasticity, endorphins, fun!  Whether people catch on right away or not, laughter will be a result.  It could take practice, just like learning the cup song.  And for any resistant males, emphasize that it will improve their sex lives!”

“The program has been enormously helpful, and I can only conclude that it’s helping me to live in a more authentic way, which I feel makes my unconscious happy! I think when you have an abusive parent you have to suppress your feelings so much that suppression, avoidance and denial become your coping mechanisms. But as you know, it’s no way to live your life.

It’s possible I may still need surgery eventually, but if so, I feel that thanks to following the program, I’d be able to do it in a conscious and aware manner. Before, I felt very strongly that It would be a mistake.”

“………….  My family and co-workers are amazed at my progress. I am especially committed to no longer talking about my pain and to writing on a regular basis. I am getting (have gotten) my life back!”

Several commented, “I feel like I just spent a weekend away at camp.”

Reconnection to you

We have always been aware that when returning home, the pain will recur. But tasting freedom from pain is powerful. Every cell in your body is created to survive and thrive. If you allow yourself to be open to possibilities, it is a matter of time before you find your way to healing. Many participants have leveraged these workshops to a more enjoyable life.

References:

1. Rosengren A, Orth-Gomer K, Wedel H, Wilhelmsen L. 1993 Stressful life events, social support, and mortality in men born in 1933. Br. Med. J (1993); 307:1102–1105.
2. Dantzer R, et al. Resilience and immunity. Brain Behav Immun (2018); 74:28-42. doi:10.1016/j.bbi.2018.08.010
3. Porges, Steven. The Polyvagal Theory. Norton and Co., New York, NY, 2011.

Ffvb

through the Vagus nerve (10^th cranial nerve).

The post Experiencing Safety: Solving Chronic Pain: An Immersive Weekend Retreat first appeared on Back in Control.

The post Experiencing Safety: Solving Chronic Pain: An Immersive Weekend Retreat appeared first on Back in Control.

Life is stressful–for everyone. No matter how people appear on the surface, it takes only a few questions to understand how many burdens they are carrying. Even for those who have been highly successful in their careers or vocation usually find that their “success” doesn’t compensate for their stress.

You may be one of those people who were fortunate enough to feel loved and supported at most levels of your development, and your view of the world will be different. Your capacity to relax and enjoy life should be greater than someone who was raised in the midst of chaos. However, regardless of your upbringing, learning to truly relax is a learnable skill. The first step is to understand the powerful unconscious forces driving your behavior on a given day. The dividing line is based on becoming and remaining aware.

Recreation

I spent a weekend with a group of close friends on an annual ski trip. Many in the group had faced significant challenges over the last year and others were simply tired. They were in work situations that were incredibly demanding and it wasn’t clear how to make any meaningful changes.

Relaxing in a lodge setting allowed us all to unwind quickly. It was truly rejuvenating. For me, the best recreation is spending quality time with friends and family and sharing enjoyable experiences. As I was looking at this word, “recreation,” I realized that what I had done for much of my life was “wreck creation.”

The essence of healthy relationships is awareness. The antithesis of awareness is anger. It is impossible to be truly relaxed if you are holding onto anger.  Trying to relax while you are still angry is the essence of “wreck creation.” Using your adrenaline drive to be successful at work is also “wreck creation.”

Wreck creation on vacation

A few months ago, I was walking on a trail in Deer Valley, Utah. Around a bend, a couple was stopped, arguing over which direction was the right way to go. One was complaining about being tired and the other was saying, “You always do this.” They quieted as I went past, and then they started to fight again.

Last weekend, at the Alta Resort, a large, intense businessman-type appearing person was yelling at his daughter standing in the ticket line. She was on her cell phone, and as he stomped off, he muttered, “You never pay attention to me.”

I have seen similar scenarios play out on almost every vacation I have taken. Until I had some insight into all of this myself, I would become irrationally angry if my wife made me wait too long while she was shopping. There have been times where a five-minute delay would ruin the rest of our day together.

Wreck creation at work

A few years ago, I realized that I was so wound up at work, that I was spending a lot of my vacation time trying to recover. My relaxation skills were not that great, and I was not able to fully re-capture my energy and enthusiasm for my work and life. I made a distinct decision to “play” at work, and “play” at play. Since I spent most of my time at work, why not enjoy it more?

To me this meant listening more closely to my patients, enjoying my staff and colleagues, and viewing “problems” as challenges. It made a dramatic difference in my quality of life at work, home, and on vacation. I didn’t have to recover since I wasn’t being drained.

What kind environment are you creating at work? 

Here are some questions to ask:

• Am I leading by inspiration or intimidation?
• Are my employees or fellow workers ever “good enough”?
• I am contributing to my work environment so that it feels safe and nurturing?
• Do I gossip about co-workers or clients?
• Do I endlessly complain about work issues or am I committed to finding solutions?
• Are people happy to see me when I walk into the room?

If you are intense at work, how can you really switch gears and relax on vacation or at home? Where are we all rushing off to? Why are we moving so fast? How much time are we spending truly caring for ourselves and for those close to us? It is important to engage in recreation to allow yourself to regenerate and connect to your creative capacity.

Recreation or “wreck creation”?

Recreation is learning to bathe your body in a chemical bath of “play” hormones such as oxytocin and dopamine. “Wreck creation” results from continually being assaulted by stress hormones. It is well-documented that you’ll have a higher likelihood of becoming mentally and/or physically ill. Behaving badly can cause almost anything in its path to be destroyed—relationships, careers, and other’s lives.

The essence of healthy relationships and recreation is awareness. The first step in engaging in truly rejuvenating experiences is becoming aware of when you are “wreck creating.” Remember—it’s okay if you fail (and frequently) along the way. Every step you take along your path is valuable and will gradually and steadily contribute to your capacity to become and remain aware.

Dr. DeMello’s definition of love is awareness.

References

1. De Mello, Anthony. The Way to Love: The Last Meditations of Anthony De Mello. Doubleday, New York, 1995.

The post Is your Recreation “Wreck Creation?”  first appeared on Back in Control.

The post Is your Recreation “Wreck Creation?”  appeared first on Back in Control.

Where is your attention?

Do you want more play in your life? Are you sure? Many people become so used to pursuing a cure or fix for their pain, that it becomes such a habitual behavioral pattern that you may not be aware of how attached you are to it.

There are two parts to this story. The first one is that you can’t fix yourself, because your focus is still on the problem. The harder you try, the worse it will become. It’s a consistent experience. Your body chemistry will remain out of balance, and there are many physical symptoms that stem from the effects on the various body organs. The second, and most critical aspect of healing, is learning the methods to auto-regulate your body’s chemistry, which also has profound effects on your organ systems resulting in a marked decrease in physical symptoms and improves your over sense of well-being.

Play

One of the most effective ways of achieving this state of being is to nurture a sense of play in almost every aspect of your life. It is a choice you can make daily with or without your pain. If you are waiting for the pain to disappear first, you’ll be waiting a long time. The pain is center stage and where your nervous system will experience an increase in the complexity and strength of these unpleasant circuits. (1)

We discovered the play concept many years ago during our annual Omega Institute workshop, “Relief from Chronic Pain.” We held the first one in 2013. It was before I had any concept of how the body chemistry had such a profound effect on creating mental and physical symptoms. I did have a basic understanding of neuroplasticity, and also knew that social isolation creates similar symptoms to those of people suffering from chronic pain. The seminar is based on awareness, hope, forgiveness and play. The intention was to create a structured, enjoyable shared experience.

Re-connecting with play, people and life

My wife, Babs, is a professional tap dancer. Rhythm is second nature to her. We didn’t attempt to dance, but worked on some basic rhythm in the form of “The Cup Song” and a few other simple steps. Most of us were rather inept at learning these skills (there were some notable exceptions) but we began to laugh. It was clear that this wasn’t a high-stakes game and we just had some fun. Many participants had a shift in mood, and some experienced a significant decrease in their pain. Even more had improvement months later because I think their nervous system had reconnected with having fun. Fun gets buried in the morass of pain. They were able to practice the tools unique to them to get back to that spot.

The healing process is paradoxical. Before you can move forward you have to let go. You can’t truly play if you are angry and the more legitimate your anger, the harder it is to process it. So, a significant part of the weekend is focused on forgiveness.

Both play and forgiveness are processes that have different roles and impact on a given day. Even if you can’t forgive for a while, make an empirical choice to play. We do know that actively engaging in fun will change your mood – whether you want to or not. This poem was recently sent to me and reflects some core healing concepts.

When I Dance

“When I dance

I cannot judge,

I cannot hate,

I cannot separate

myself from life.

I can only be joyful

and whole.

That is why

I dance.”

~ Hans Bos

That is why

When I judge

Hate

Separate myself from life

I cannot dance.

Reply from my friend

We would love to meet you this year at our 2019 workshop at the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, NY being held from Friday evening, June 7^thuntil Sunday noon, June 9^th.

So whatever form it takes – just dance!!

The post When I Dance – Omega 2019 first appeared on Back in Control.

The post When I Dance – Omega 2019 appeared first on Back in Control.

Feeling safe

Most babies feel safe and nurtured. They are protected from the realities of competing for resources to stay alive. They are free to explore, observe and learn. But all living creatures need anxiety and fear to avoid physical threats and obtain their basic needs. At some tipping point a child is exposed to this reality and life begins to change. The endless curiosity becomes encroached upon by survival needs. A major problem that humans have is consciousness. We have the same survival neuro-chemical response to many perceived threats that simply don’t exist. Our thoughts torment us and we can’t escape them. Unpleasant thoughts often become stronger with age and repetition and we develop “stories” about us and our life that seem real to us. We become trapped by them and there doesn’t seem to be a way out. Even if we are physically safe we are not safe from our thoughts.

The pursuit of happiness

So we do the only thing that seems logical, which is to live a life of “pursuing happiness”. It isn’t working well. In the midst of unprecedented opportunity, we are still dealing a lot of societal angst in the form of chronic pain, many forms of addiction, adult and teen suicide, bipolar disorders, depression, eating disorders, cutting, and bullying.

We pursue money, power, position, accomplishments, prestige, enlightenment, vocations and careers. The problem is that you are placing your peace of mind at the mercy of others’ opinions and surrounding circumstances; most of which you have little control over. Additionally, you are using conscious means to deal with the unconscious survival brain, which is estimated to be one million times stronger. It is a gross mismatch.

One of the most common pursuits is “winning.” Somehow, if we win something and have our name memorialized, that will squelch our internal demons. Intellectually, we know better. We have all witnessed the trials and tribulations of high-profile public figures who did have everything beyond comprehension. I was surprised to learn that Judy Garland struggled with addiction issues. I was a Michael Jackson fan and it was painful to watch him also slide into addiction. Robin Williams was a huge inspiration for me when I was in the depths of my own Abyss. I am in awe of anyone who has a wit that quick with his range of talent. We all know the stories of many lottery winners whose lives became undone after the windfall.

Why winning doesn’t work

The need to win is a problem. First of all, only a few can do it. Second, winning at costs seems to becoming the norm. It is disturbing to watch the politicians fight over issues based on party lines instead of doing their job of serving their constituents and running the government. In the legal world, prosecutors will withhold evidence that would clear the defendant in order to “win the case.” A person’s life is completely destroyed because of that attorney’s need to win. The practice is common enough that there are laws punishing this behavior.

Third, a core problem blocking us from happiness is anxiety and anger. When a good part of your life’s energy is spent battling these feelings and emotions, it is difficult to relax. The need to win creates even more anxiety, not less. The expectations placed on us, especially the children and teens are enormous and mostly impossible to meet. The anxiety is relentless.

This week’s Time magazine cover was titled, “How Kid Sports Turned Pro”. It describes the tremendous pressure experienced by families dealing with the demands and costs associated with creating a high-level athlete. There was one key paragraph that caught my attention. “According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, ‘burnout, anxiety, depression and attrition are increased in early specializers.’ The group says delaying specialization in most cases until late adolescence increases the likelihood of athletic success. (1)

Finally, when you achieve success, there is even more anxiety. How much success do you need? When is it going to end and you’ll crash? I was surprised to learn during my Hoffman workshop that I had much more anxiety when things were going well. I was raised in a chaotic household and when my mother was calm, we never knew what would set her off. We did not know how to relax or enjoy the moments of calm. If you are a golfer, you know that the stress of the round increases if you are having “the round of your life.”

Disconnecting and connecting

The bottom line is that you are not going to find your peace of mind using external circumstances to calm yourself. There are many ways to connect with who you are and enjoy life. Whatever approach you use has to first involve disconnecting from these survival reactions and THEN re-directing your attention. The sequence is awareness, separation, and reprogramming. If you try to skip the first two steps, you will be fighting a losing battle. In Stage 1 of the book and website, the expressive writing accomplishes awareness and separation and the active meditation is a method of reprogramming. In Stage 2, forgiveness is a more complex way of creating awareness and separation.

Winning is fine and to be commended. It just can’t be confused with attaining peace of mind, especially if the winning is at the expense of others. I get to win every day with patients and surgeries going well. I greatly enjoy it and I hate it when things don’t go as planned. But I have noticed that if I spend my energy congratulating myself and “keeping score”, it greatly diminishes the experience. Instead, I concentrate on every patient and every move of each surgery. I use the tools that I have presented in my book daily. My successes don’t quell my anxiety. It is by consciously calming down and staying connected to what is immediately in front of me that allows me to enjoy my life.

My friend, David Elaimy, who is a performance coach and I worked with my son, Nick and one of his best friends, Holt to optimize their performance under pressure. They were national level mogul freestyle skiers. They were consumed with winning and dedicated a significant part of their lives to attaining a gold medal. We kept telling both of them how winning was over-rated and to work more on enjoying the process. Holt won the National US Freestyle National Championship in 2007 in Park City, Utah. It was a great moment and one of the more remarkable accomplishments you will see under extreme circumstances. However, at breakfast the next morning he said, “You were right. Winning doesn’t change the fact that you have to get up the next day and continue to live your life.” To both of their credits, they have learned to enjoy the journey. Nick’s winning run – off the hill

Work vs. play

I have been as driven as anyone in using achievements to attain happiness. It was a disaster. About five or six years ago I realized that although pain pathways are permanent, so are play pathways. I made a decision to remove the labels of “work” and “play” and focus on experiencing all of it. This approach doesn’t mean that I have to like adversity. No one is asking you to enjoy your pain. But as you nurture your sense of play, you’ll shift off of your pain circuits and your life will change.

Play – better with others

Play is a powerful force directing your consciousness to a pain-free existence. You already have that capacity within you. You just have to re-connect with yourself. You spent a good part of the first five years of your life learning play. Even if you were raised in a rough environment, it’s there. I don’t’ remember much play with my family and I had essentially no friends during that phase of my life. I still built models, climbed trees and played with our pets. Play is an inherent part of our existence. At the workshops that we have held at the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, NY, we discovered that the key to people’s healing was to create a safe environment where the participants could share enjoyable experiences with others. We felt like we were in a giant sandbox and were able to relax and laugh. A common comment was, “We felt like we just spent a weekend at a summer camp.” We held a similar workshop in Seattle were excited and inspired with the healing that occurred in the group setting.

“Winning” is not the best answer to a successful life. Wake the fun up!!

1. Gregory, Sean. “Kid Sports INC. Time (2017); 190: 41-53.

The post Wake the Fun up!! first appeared on Back in Control.

The post Wake the Fun up!! appeared first on Back in Control.

As in the past, joining me will be my wife, Babs Yohai, who is a professional dancer; and my daughter Jasmine Yohi-Rifkin, a dancer and choreographer with an MA in psychology. Both will present effective somatic, movement, and expressive arts tools that participants can use after the workshop.

This year, also joining me will be special guest Bernie Siegel, MD, best-selling author, retired pediatric and general surgeon, and founder of Exceptional Cancer Patients (ECaP—a form of group therapy for cancer patients). Bernie has written prolifically about healing and many other topics that address life’s challenges. You may know two of his most prominent books, The Art of Healing and Love, Medicine and Miracles. Over the last couple of years Bernie has inspired me with his wisdom and accomplishments. He will join us live via Skype on Saturday afternoon.

While Bernie and I use different approaches, we both share the conviction that the key to healing is connecting with our own capacity to heal ourselves. I use neuroscience to support the principles in my book, Back in Control; but the science also supports Bernie’s concepts. It will be exciting and insightful to have Bernie talk about his approach and how our two bodies of work intersect.

Over the years that I’ve been offering this workshop, its format has evolved by applying four tools that address chronic pain: awareness, hope, forgiveness, and play.

Awareness

In order to solve a problem, it helps to understand it. For example, it is useful to know that stress created from a physical or emotional source elicits an automatic survival response, which includes the release of stress hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol. Anxiety is the feeling elicited from these chemicals. The first step in solving your pain is to recognize this link. This and other neurophysiological aspects of pain are discussed in chapter one of Back in Control; and we recommend that participants read it before attending, to get the most out of the workshop.

Dr. Siegel advises us to be aware of the role pain plays in our lives, and what it can teach us to help us heal. I strongly encourage you to read The Art of Healing. Bernie has many great stories, and I’m excited to hear what he will be teaching us at the workshop.

Hope

Many people in pain lose hope and find themselves in a downward spiral of despair. I was in that abyss for over fifteen years and became an “epiphany addict,” on a desperate quest to find “the” answer. As a physician, I had access to every known solution, but not one of them brought relief. 2002 found me utterly hopeless and attempting suicide.

Like most of the medical profession, I was looking at chronic pain as something to be managed, and found little success in treating it. Once I finally discovered the mind-body connection, which has been supported in neurophysiological research, I learned that a combination of treatments was the answer. Now I have not only my own, but scores of success stories to share at the workshop. With the correct treatment process, solving pain is not only possible—it’s probable. Chronic pain is curable.

Forgiveness

Most patients find it extremely difficult to forgive the person or situation that caused their pain. The more legitimate one’s anger, the more difficult it is to let it go. Typically, people are most angry with themselves. But as long as you hold on to anger, you hold on to chronic pain, no matter whom you are angry with. As travelers of the same neurological pathways, anger and pain sensations are tightly linked.

You must be willing to deeply forgive not only others, but yourself—down to your deepest wrongs. You may improve by using other tools in the DOC process; but you will not become pain-free until you completely forgive. Many people in pain are addicted to the power of anger and pain, and refuse to give it up. They not only choose to continue to suffer but also make the lives of those close to them miserable. If you are one of those people, this workshop is not for you.

Play

The one goal I had when I began holding Omega workshops was that people just be with each other and share some experiences. Almost all my patients had become socially isolated, which gave them more time to obsess about their pain. I thought, after they learned and practiced some effective tools, they would go home, put them to use, and then start to experience an improvement. But one of the biggest surprises was how quickly chronic pain disappeared during the workshop. After suffering for years, many participants became pain-free during those few days.

In the workshops we create a structured environment where participants feel safe to share. As participants relaxed, a sense of play crept into the group and their pain began to abate. When this first happened it was totally unexpected! But it might have had something to do with our prohibition against complaining or discussing their pain or medical treatments during the workshop.

When participants returned home and re-encountered familiar triggers, pain typically re-appeared. But with new tools to process these emotional agitators, eventually the participants did well. One of my mentors, the coach for the University of Washington women’s golf team who, by using many of these concepts, advanced them to the national championships in 2016, taught me, “Adversity is a chance to practice your tools.”

Success Story: Deb

Deb was a social worker in her mid-forties when she attended our first Omega workshop in 2013. She had experienced severe, unrelenting neck pain for over four years, and tried all the traditional treatments without success. She was studying chronic pain for her PhD dissertation, thinking that it would help her solve her own pain. Deb did not fully participate in the workshop, missing a couple of key sharing sessions and staying off-campus with her boyfriend. When her condition did not improve, I assumed that was just the way it was going to be. But about ten months later she became completely pain free. Why? Deb attributes her remarkable recovery to stopping physical therapy, adopting an anti-inflammatory diet, getting better quality sleep, practicing expressive writing, and focusing on forgiveness. Not only is she free of pain; she has brought the DOC tools into her community and set up a non-profit housing project. She is a delightful, energetic, contributing member of her community.

Awareness prepares you for change.

Hope is the energy needed to begin the climb out the Abyss.

Forgiveness eradicates anger and its poisons.

Play connects you with others and transcends pain.

Step into your new life.

The post Omega 2017: Awareness, Hope, Forgiveness and Play first appeared on Back in Control.

The post Omega 2017: Awareness, Hope, Forgiveness and Play appeared first on Back in Control.

Then someone told Sarah she was losing her mental capacities. I explained that several studies had revealed that brains shrink in the presence of chronic pain, but re-expand when the pain abates. (1) I encouraged her not only to continue using the DOC tools, but also to re-connect with prior interests. Over the next six months, her depression lifted and she became more energized and interactive. She also regained much, if not all, of her alertness and reasoning abilities. Instead of focusing on dementia, she had re-set her sights on moving forward.

At one point Sarah brought in some dolls that she had created over the years as a therapeutic tool in her recovery. I asked her to write a letter telling the fascinating story of her dolls, so that I could share it with you.

Sarah’s Letter

To my mentor, Dr. Hanscom:

Some time ago you took pictures of my “emotional dolls.” I had shut down physically and emotionally, lost in pain and fear. I had forgotten all the biofeedback training that had helped me years before, and could not escape my desperation. I had no purpose, no reason to live. It was then my physical therapist referred me to you. Your program set me on the right track.

We all have our hurts, some more tragic than others. By telling my story I can be proud of turning suffering into achievement.

The Big Doll

When I was in my late 20’s I began to have severe headaches on the left side of my head. My family doctor diagnosed migraines, taught me about food triggers and exercise, and prescribed Imitrex. But the pain became so bad that when I wasn’t hoping that God would take me, I considered getting a lobotomy or going anywhere in the world that could rid me of this.

When the number of debilitating migraines reached 4 – 5 per week—sometimes landing me in the hospital for days at a time—my family doctor sent me to the Diamond Headache Clinic in Chicago. Dr. Seymour Diamond used a multidisciplinary approach that included biofeedback therapy, cranio-sacral work, and yoga. Through nutritional counseling I learned more about food triggers. Whenever I sensed a migraine coming on, I retreated to a dark room.

But no matter how much I tried, I could not ignore the terrifying, head-eating monster behind the left side of my head, ready to stick its fangs into my left eye. While I was visualizing the monster, I remembered a visit to the Milwaukee County Museum. At a Far East exhibit was a frightening, human-sized doll with huge teeth, a dangling tongue, bulging eyes, hanging breasts, and skulls in its hands. That was my monster, I thought. That is what my migraine looks like.

Then I had an idea. What if I sculpted a doll that looked like the hideous monster that sits behind my left ear? I began to create a doll out of cloth. When I was done, I hung it in my sewing room where I could see it every day. Now this doll, not I, contained all the migraine pain I ever experienced. It could not hurt me—it was only a doll. If I got a mild migraine, which I did about once or twice a year, I remembered it was not my migraine, but the doll’s. I was free and immensely grateful to Dr. Diamond for giving me tools to live a pain-free life.

The Bike Accident

When I was in my 30’s, The Boeing Company hired my husband as an engineer and me as a draftsperson. Life was remarkable with no pain. I stopped using Dr. Diamond’s biofeedback techniques but embraced a rigorous physical fitness regimen. I became a serious triathlete. Every day I biked to work, ran during my lunch hour, biked to a gym and lifted weights or went swimming for an hour or two in the lake across the street from my house.

By my 49th year, I had a good job with a promising future and won most of the races I entered. I was elated to have been accepted to the Ironman Kona Hawaii Triathlon Championships, a 140.6-mile race. I had all summer to train, and I trained hard.

One day I rode my bike to Bellevue, Washington, to join some other bikers on a 100-mile training ride. When I got to the meeting place, a hotel parking lot, my wheel caught a hole in the driveway. I cantilevered over my handlebars, hitting my head on the concrete, and passed out. When I woke up, emergency personnel were all around me, cutting my brand new $65 biking sweater off me. Badly injured, I was put in an ambulance and taken to the hospital, where I had a neck surgical fusion and a wrist reconstruction. The pain never went away. Eventually I had two-level fusion through the front of my neck.

The Small Doll

I lost all that identified me—my job and the ability to run, swim, and bike. I found it difficult to do most tasks. All my friends were athletes, so we no longer had anything in common. After a while I stopped seeing them. The only people I saw were doctors and physical therapists.

I saw no sense to life, no purpose, and felt nothing but the prospect of one surgery after another. My suffering had no limit; If one day was bad, then I knew the next would be worse. I had fallen into a dark pit, an uncharted underworld of loneliness and despair. It was time to sew another doll. I visualized a two-sided face with features on both sides. On one side was the person I wanted others to judge me by.

The opposite side showed who I thought I really was. On this side I jabbed a pair of scissors in my heart and put a mirror in my hand that reflected the word “Fear.” I pierced “my body” all over with copious amounts of needles and other sewing notions, to represent the pain that I had endured for the last 20 years.

Today I am doing well. Dr. Hanscom, thank you for all the training. On the few days I start to slide back into the darkness, I can find my way back to loving myself. Life is potentially meaningful under any conditions. What matters is the capacity to turn life’s negative aspects into something positive and constructive; to make “the best” of any situation. Just focus on all the beauty that surrounds us.

Dolls, as objects of our creative imagination, will, if we invite them, take us to play again in the house of our childhood past and perhaps bestow upon us a future we hadn’t imagined.

—Cassandra Light, The Way of the Doll: The Art and Craft of Personal Transformation

Self-healing

Sarah’s story illustrates several aspects of successfully treating chronic pain, which include: 1) de-adrenalizing your nervous system 2) creating new neurological circuits 3) shifting back on to enjoyable ones.

One of the more important exercises I recommend in my book is to consider one of happiest times of your life and spending an hour recalling as many details as you can. Then experience the feelings. Your brain will begin to wake up as you reconnect. Her dolls pulled her back into a better place. Making the dolls is also an enjoyable activity that shifts your brain onto more relaxing circuits and your adrenaline levels will decrease. Play

It’s Anxiety, Not Dementia

Why is mental function compromised in the presence of chronic pain? First of all, the stress hormone, adrenaline, decreases the blood supply to your brain’s frontal lobe. Second, obsessive thoughts cause the brain to get stuck on a few repetitive circuits, making them more embedded, blocking your creativity, and causing portions of your brain to be under-used. The most tragic part of this sequence is that, with this diminished brain function, you are less willing and less able to learn new ways to heal. In other words, the pain blocks its own treatment.

I, too, experienced a cognitive decline during the worst part of my burnout; but eventually I regained all my faculties plus an added creative bonus–an interest in writing poetry. I predict that research will eventually show much of dementia to be anxiety-induced. It is not necessary—or recommended—to “combat” your illness or try to “fix” yourself. Instead, you can employ the DOC tools and watch the miraculous process of self-healing. Solving the unsolvable

Not only is Sarah doing well, she emanates joy. She is mentally sharp and moving forward quickly with her life. It has been a remarkable experience for me to witness this transformation.

1. Seminowicz DA, et al. “Effective treatment of chronic low back pain in humans reverses abnormal brain anatomy and function.” The Journal of Neuroscience (2011); 31: 7540-7550.

The post Out of the Valley, with Dolls first appeared on Back in Control.

The post Out of the Valley, with Dolls appeared first on Back in Control.

Dr. Fred Luskin, author of Forgive for Good, my wife Babs Yohai, a professional tap dancer, and I will hold a five-day workshop at the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, NY. The course is structured around education, hope, forgiveness, and play. It is based on the concepts presented in Back in Control: A Spine Surgeon’s Roadmap Out of Chronic Pain and Dr. Luskin’s work out of Stanford on forgiveness. Babs role is a critical piece in that she engages the group in somatic experiences, which connects thoughts to physical sensations. The activities stimulate the shifting of neurological pathways with many changes occurring during the week.

Pain pathways are permanent

Most readers of this website already know that pain pathways are permanent and tightly intertwined with anxiety and anger circuits. It has also been shown that mental and physical pain are processed in a similar part of the brain. We consider and treat them in the same manner. As you cannot rid yourself of any of these patterns it is necessary to create alternative pathways. This can be done in several ways:

• Awareness, detachment, and reprogramming
  • Begins with connecting negative thoughts with physical sensations and then substituting appropriate alternatives
• Calming down the nervous system
• Play

Play pathways are also permanent. People in pain lose their sense of humor. Reconnecting with those enjoyable pathways is a powerful way of shifting out of pain circuits.

My wife

My wife is a professional tap dancer and accomplished in Balinese mask dancing. She has expertise in rhythm and movement. In 2013 I asked her to be one of the faculty, as these types of practices can quickly reconnect and create new neurological connections. She was somewhat apprehensive about her role but agreed to give it a try. She ended up having a major impact. She began with having us “scan” our bodies for tension and letting it go. Next she had us moving around the room with and without masks. Participants began to relax and interact with each other.

The Cup Song

Then she pulled out The Cup Song, which I had never heard of. It turns out that is it viral on the Internet and has been around since the 1930’s. It was popularized by the movie, Pitch Perfect, starring Anna Kendrick.

The Cup Song

We all sat around the table and struggled at various levels to learn this rhythm with cups. We all began to laugh and the energy of the room changed. We kept trying and laughed more.

The shift

There are many factors that went into the success of the workshop but within a day of “learning” this rhythm, the participants began to experience a significant decrease in their anxiety. By the end of the week five of eleven went to pain free with the rest experiencing various degrees of relief of both pain and anxiety. We are staying in touch and almost everyone is continuing to move forward.

My vision for the week was to present enough of the structured care concepts so that people could implement them at home. I was hoping that most would engage and experience a shift in pain and mood over three to six months. There was not any part of me that envisioned the entire group experiencing a major shift.

Connection

I will be writing about the Omega week in a fairly detailed manner and will learn more as the group gives each other feedback. There were clearly other factors such as videos of patient’s successes, structured conversations, buddies, education, and active meditation techniques. However the concept of “playful” is what transpired as the most powerful force.

I have repeatedly pointed out that the concepts of the DOCC project are not a formula. What heals people is connection – to each other and to him or herself. The best part of who you are is when you are at play. Ready to Blossom

The Cup Song or the gym?

One of the participants had been experiencing quite severe back and leg pain for about five years. He initial improvement was punctuated by the anticipated ups and downs over the months following the 2013 Omega experience. Here is one of his emails:

“Ah, the victim role, that is me seemingly all the time. All of David Burn’s (author of Feeling Good) cognitive distortions are helpful to recognize in myself, but victimhood is the reminder most useful for me. I fall into it so easily!

I had a bad evening with the lower back several days ago. Instead of my usual hour+ strengthening and stretching routine, I practiced The Cup Song for 45 minutes and most of the tension in my back went away. I’m starting to synch the lyrics with the percussion! I’ll need to go back to Omega for The Natural Singer In You to work on my tone and pitch!”

Enjoy your day today

Play is not often mentioned in the context of chronic pain. Could The Cup Song be a key to healing from chronic mental and physical pain?

The post Rewire Your Brain – Omega 2015 first appeared on Back in Control.

The post Rewire Your Brain – Omega 2015 appeared first on Back in Control.