Issue: #13: September 2010

Namaste Friends,

Recently I've been obsessing about pain.
 
Normally, I'm not fixated on pain. But for three months I've had little choice because of radiating spasms down the back of my left hip and quad, making ordinary movements, even walking and lying down, agonizing. Doctors have been of little help.
 
What is pain and what can we do about it? Research says that pain is more in the brain than in the body. So is all this agony mostly in my head? Yes, but not quite.
 
Pain originates in the brain and occurs when the brain feels that the tissues of the body need attention. It is not passively perceived from a pre-formed incoming sensation in the body. What this really means is that the brain has a lot of latitude in making a choice about whether we feel pain or not. Want proof? Consider that many people with no back pain are riddled with herniated disks that they only discover when they have an MRI. (Mine was severe stenosis in L5 and L4.) On the other hand, some people show no physical damage to the body, yet experience excruciating pain. It's simply the central nervous system misinterpreting innocuous stimuli.
 
When pain hangs around too long, however, it becomes like a broken record that is stuck in the same groove. This occurs when a neural pathway is used repeatedly creating something of a rut that is easily triggered. The effect is known as "long term potentiation." Think of giving pain unconscious permission to reach it's full potential!  It's as if the pain wears a groove in the brain, and the more often you feel the pain, the deeper the groove becomes and the more difficult it becomes to escape it. Continuing pain does not necessarily mean continuing damage to the body. The body may have healed, but the pain becomes a habit the brain cannot kick.
 
Want to get out of this rut? If so, you'll have to have a little tête-a-tête with your brain. Convincing the central nervous system to switch channels isn't easy. But here's what the experts suggest.
 
Look at your pain objectively. Quantify it, identify its color, shape and texture. By doing this you start recognizing that it's not constant, that like everything else in life, it too changes.  Another tactic is to replace the sensation with a different physical sensation, on the principle that the brain can be distracted, like a child that you bribe with a new toy. Even lightly massaging your skin can be enough to trick the brain for a temporary respite.
 
Most important, and for me the hardest, is to avoid negativity. The more you think about the limitations pain brings, the more trapped you can feel--which can spiral you into despair.
 
So how do you change your attitude?  It's really quite simple.  Start writing down everything--and I mean everything--you can do. Suddenly the positives begin to outweigh the negatives. You realize that you're not as helpless, that your life is not as circumscribed as your vivid imagination has led you to believe.

For example, after despairing about not being able to practice yoga as I'd like to, I've begun to figure out what I can do. It turns out that I can crawl on all fours and bear-walk (that's Down Dog going for a hike) without pain. My practice looks very different -- it's focused on shoulder openers, seated poses and pranayama, but being able to practice at all feels like a victory. Once you prove to yourself that you are active and able, you'll find that one action begets the motivation to try something else-and voila, you're up and running--well maybe not running, but coping with a smile!

Breathe well, be well,


Suzanne
suzanneausnit@optonline.net
fullpotentialyoga.com

P.S. Please join me at Play Ball: Self Massage and Ball Therapy Workshop on October 10 or 13.

Soul Food

"And then I thought of my father's asking me to cut the grass behind the cabin a week ago....I fetched the scythe from the shed and set about it with all my strength...But alongside the cabin wall there was big patch of stinging nettles, growing tall and thick, and I worked my way around them in a wide arc.
"Why not cut down the nettles? he (my father)said...
"It will hurt," I said.  Then he looked at me with half a smile and a little shake of the head.
"You decide for yourself when it will hurt," he said.  He walked over to the nettles and took hold of the smarting plants with his bare hands and began to pull them up with perfect calm...and he did not stop before he had pulled them all up."
                     --Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson

(The best book I have read this year!)

HEAL

Take a Deep Breath and Count to 90
Jill Bolte Taylor, author of My Stroke of Insight, notes that the physiological response to negative emotions takes 90 seconds to run its course and be flushed away. After that, it's up to you whether you continue to run the same loop in your mind that makes you angry or depressed, or whether you replace it with some other emotion. The next time you find yourself thinking negative thoughts, stop thinking about what's making you upset and start paying attention to what's going on physically in your body: tight muscles, upset stomach, light-headedness and so forth. After 90 seconds, the emotional/physiological response will dissipate and you can give your brain a good talking to. It's ok to be stern, figuratively (and literally, for more kinesthetic reinforcement) wagging your finger and telling your brain to knock it off.

Stress Busters
Yogis have long known that the best antidote for stress is getting out of your head and doing something for someone else. This is the basis for maitri, or loving-kindness, meditation. So it comes as no surprise that well-known stress researcher Robert Sapolsky, who studies the effects of stress on baboons, emphasizes the importance of helping others in his book Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers. He notes that the traditional "fight or flight" response to stress applies mostly to males. (Actually, he points out that it is really four "F's": fight, flight, freeze or... make love.) The female response to stress is to "tend and befriend." (well, duh...) But ladies don't despair--Sapolsky has also found that even stressed-out, less-dominant male baboons console themselves by grooming other baboons. 

STRENGTHEN

Interval Training
New research has confirmed the cardiovascular and fat-burning benefits of interval training where short bursts of high intensity exercise are combined with breaks at lower intensity. By alternating high and low intensity bouts, you can spend more time doing high intensity exercise than you would otherwise. The high-intensity phase is typically one to four minutes, with recovery periods just long enough for your heart rate to drop, but not to resting level.
To include the benefits of interval training in your yoga practice, spend a few minutes doing sets of walking lunges, wood chopping (standing with feet shoulder width, fingers interlaced; reaching your arms overhead as you inhale and bending your knees and sweep your fists back between your legs as you exhale), and "walking the plank" (the Yoga Tune Up® exercise in which you move from plank to lunges alternating legs while keeping your hips stable). In between bouts, try a set of slow sun salutations or a few seated poses to recover.

Cool it
Don't underestimate the power of your imagination. Researchers at Baylor University recently discovered that menopausal women who visualized cool imagery dramatically reduced the severity of their hot flashes. The study found that what worked best was for the women to choose their own imagery during the hot flash. Among the popular images chosen were cool waterfalls or rain showers, deep forests, snowy mountains and (from the nature-phobic)  air-conditioned movie theaters. 

LIVE

Quick Fix Ratatouille
Is a calorie always a calorie regardless of when you eat it? Does eating late at night add pounds because the body stores those calories as fat? The good news is that scientifically there is no evidence that bedtime calories are more fattening than others--what matters is the total number of calories, not when you eat them. But there are, in fact, good reasons to avoid big meals or mindless snacking at night. While eating late won't change your metabolism, it can lead to consuming larger portions because you're overly hungry. It can also encourage eating junk food because you're too tired to cook a healthy meal. Another risk of eating a large meal after going a long time without food is the negative impact it can have on the interaction between blood sugar and insulin, a factor in developing diabetes. 

Dream On
Getting a good night's sleep with lots of vivid dreams can improve your memory. In a recent study, sleep scientists discovered that people who were deprived of REM sleep (the segments of our sleep when we dream) were less able to remember and process information than those who were allowed to dream. The hippocampus (a section of the brain heavily involved in forming and storing memories) is particularly active during sleep. Scientists hypothesize that dreaming is a mental filing system in which the brain chooses what information to retain and to discard. One more good reason to get some Z's!

 

WORKSHOP

Play Ball: Self Massage & Ball Therapy
Get on the ball through this fabulous self-care technique used by professional athletes and dancers to literally roll muscle tension out of your body. This powerful therapy refreshes, rejuvenates and relaxes your body thanks to a series of specially designed rubber balls that follow the contours of the bony structures of the body, making it easy to find specific muscles. It's like a deep tissue massage--only better because you can increase or decrease the pressure at will.
 
These balls of relief and renewal will: 
     *Unravel deep-seated knots in your neck, shoulders and hips, calves, hamstrings and quads.
     *Improve your posture, reduce back pain and increase
range of motion in your joints.

     *Increase circulation and hydrate the body's tissues.
     *Iron out sore spots you never knew you had.
 
Ball therapy works wonders for runners, golfers, weightlifters, yogis and couch potatoes. All levels welcome.
  
WHERE: 537 Park Avenue, Hoboken 
WHEN: Wed, June 23, 7-10 pm and Sun, June 27, 1-4 pm
COST: $95 (includes 5 balls) or $75 (without balls)
     
Space is limited: Participants must sign up before the workshop. Contact me at suzanneausnit@optonline.net, 973-204-0929