Your fear is tied to your pain.
Why this matters:
The fear we experience is a survival mechanism. It protects us from danger. The same goes with pain. But when that pain is also associated with fear, scared to do more damage, fear of the unknown, the fear of not being able to get your life back… The pain will intensify. A large part of my job is reducing that fear to help show you that you can in fact move safely without increasing your pain.
It is easier said than done to tell you “just be less afraid”. So here’s my solution to reducing your fear and lowering your pain.
Action steps:
Find a comfortable place to sit or lay down, whichever is the most comfortable for you. From there, close your eyes. Spend the next 5 minutes breathing in the following sequence: 4 seconds in, 4 seconds hold, 4 seconds breathe out, 4 seconds hold. Count these numbers in your head. You’ll notice that your anxiety and fear will start to dissipate. After that, you’ll notice the pain has come down significantly.
Now is the time to look into your pain as an explorer, and not with fear.
You got this.
