When we have chronic pain our world can become very, very small and when our world becomes very, very small, it becomes less populated, less interesting, less motivating, less engaging, less enjoyable…just less. And when our world becomes so very small, our movement becomes small too. Our movement becomes stifled, guarded, restricted, limited…less. We may not move much or as much as we used →
At some point along the way in writing this blog and trying to figure out this whole chronic pain thing, I went from learning about and understanding more about the science of pain to actually living what I know (well, mostly living what I know, I have my moments). I didn’t really notice it myself, at least not until it was →
I recently wrote about how my thoughts on movement have changed over the past couple of years (part 1 and 2), and I thought I’d delve a bit more into the evolution of those thoughts and why I posted them. Why I think our emphasis needs to shift a bit from the overly formulaic and prescribed movement to exploring enjoyable →
This past weekend I attended the first annual San Diego Pain Summit and I can’t even begin to put into a cohesive string of words all that I am thinking, nor can I come close to formulating into a single blog post all that I learned during the course of three days of thought-provoking presentations from a stellar line-up of speakers. On top →
There are a number of things I’ve been wanting to write about but I always have trouble knowing where to start (I have a tendency to want to give you guys EVERYTHING ALL AT ONCE). So I’m going to start chipping away at them in small doses, starting with some clarification on what pain is and what it isn’t. Today →
Forgive me if this post is pretty similar to the last one (and a bit of a rant) but I’m all fired up right now after seeing another headline on social media that read “Pain: It’s all in your head”. ARGH!!! As someone living with pain, and who regularly hears from others living with pain, headlines like these really get →
We are the story we tell ourselves. I’m not sure where I heard that but it really rung true for me. We are the story we tell ourselves, we are the words we use to describe ourselves, our lives. So why is it that so many of us tell ourselves a negative story? Or a sad story? Or an angry story? Language →
Working with people in pain is a passion of mine, especially after my own experiences with injury, surgery, rehab, and chronic pain, so I wanted to share some of my experiences with the Egoscue method, which has made a profound difference in my life and in my ability to be active again. It’s really allowed me to get a handle →
I was stuck in an “I’m recovering from an injury” rut for a really long time and didn’t even realize it. I was letting my pain issues rule my life, despite believing I was doing everything in my power to not do that. (I know better! Or so I thought.). But I was still telling myself that I was injured, →
This article on injury rehabilitation for tactical athletes was originally posted at National Tactical Fitness. Get injured. Get sidelined. Rehab injured body part. Go back at it, likely with some pain and some limitations. Get injured. Get sidelined. Rehab injured body part. Got back at it, likely with more pain and more limitations. Get injured…. You get the pattern. So →
This complete breath exercise is my second post on breathing , if you missed the first one head over there for a good place to start if your new to breathing exercises. Or if you want to dive right in – go right ahead Complete breath…. Oftentimes the breaths we take aren’t complete. We’re not fully inflating our lungs and →
Nearly everyone that makes a resolution at some point in their lives (or frequently throughout their lives) that includes some component of getting fitter. Often times this includes starting a new workout program to lose pounds but with only a vague or confused understanding of how to accomplish that goal as efficiently as possible. You Google workouts, read fitness magazines →