explain
pain
6
section
117
page
3. Plan your progression.
Because you know that ‘let
pain be your guide’ and ‘no pain, no gain’ are not
the ideal paths to choose, youneed to plan your
baseline increases in advance. Be gentle on yourself.
Taking the example above, you could plan towalk
slightly
further each day for the next week – 3½
minutes, 4, 4½, 5, 5½ etc. Often, time is a good
measure. An alarm clock is invaluable: setting an
alarm for your pre-planned periodwill allow you to
benefit from distraction (eg. read a good book, send
a text, talk to your best friend)without exceeding
the limit and flaring up. When youhave planned
ahead, youwill often complete the set amount of
activity and be feeling really good – do not be
tempted to break the plan and push on. Thiswill
lead you right into the boom-bust trap. One step at
a time –
be patient
.
4. Don’t flare up, but don’t freak out if you do!
Because the alarm system is so sensitive, it is very
difficult to completely avoid flare-ups. If you do
flare up – do not give yourself a hard time and
stress out! Remember what a flare-up is – your
nervous system trying to protect you. When you
flare up, it can be tempting to give up, forget what
you know about pain, and seek some radical but
inappropriate quick-fix treatment. Don’t give up –
be persistent
.
5. It’s a lifestyle thing.
In the short term youwill
have to plan your life a littlemore. Youwill benefit
from seeking out ‘happy activities’, because they
have known physiological effects on your alarm
system and pain ignitionnodes. Choose fun
activities if you can, and do themwith fun people,
or to your favouritemusic. Challenge some feared
activitieswhen you becomemore confident. It is
difficult to do this on your own. Have your loved
ones read this book and join in the reasoned
discussion about your pain andwhat to do about it.
We know that this sounds simple. However, if you
have had pain for a long time youwill know how
difficult it really is. This process is doing some pretty
complex things to your brain. However, we know that
if you stickwith these principles youwill gradually
return to normal life and overcome your pain.
1-4, 9-12
The art of graded exposure and pacing.
Scoring some brain triumphs.
