What is PAIN's secret message?

Bottom Line: Pain is something that people just hate to deal with in their life. Generally, the first response people take is to "make it go away" as fast as possible. So people rely on interventions such as drugs, injections, surgeries, and bad lifestyle habits to "distract or take the pain away". But what if that actually was cheating us of valuable knowledge that could help us actually heal the pain, not just "make it go away"?

A Key Question: What if pain was giving us valuable information that could help us heal our bodies.....would you just want it gone without getting this information first?

P.A.I.N. principle: When we experience pain there is a process that will help us get this information. By using the P.A.I.N. principle you can go deeper in understanding why you are experiencing the pain right now so you can make the right decision, not just the quick-fix.

P.A.I.N. = Pay Attention Inside Now

Pain is our body's signal that something we are doing isn't working right now. Most people treat pain like an annoying Alarm Clock....you can hit snooze only so many times before you are too late. Pain is just like that....the body sends us small signals first, until the signal gets to the point we can't ignore it any more.

An example: You get small muscle aches in your back...but you just ignore them. They come back eventually, but you just take some painkillers to numb the pain or ignore it altogether. Week to months later the pain returns much worse and this time you have a serious injury to the area that requires complicated treatments and strong painkillers or cortisone shots.

But what if you had just decided to listen to your body when you first had the small muscle aches and pains, and done something to help your body heal rather than ignoring or covering up? You could have stretched more, exercised, gotten an adjustment, lost weight, reduced your stresses etc to make a healthy lifestyle change! If we skip this step, and just seek treatments to "make it go away" then we are losing this opportunity to gain the information that could help us heal the issue and not just cover it up.

Conclusion: Next time you have pain, use the P.A.I.N. principle to gain insight into what your body is telling you. Likely it is trying to tell you something inside needs to change and it's function needs to improve. If you need help deciphering what your body is communicating feel free to ask Dr. Ghessi.