Have you ever noticed certain subjects have general perceptions around them? For example, how many times have you heard the adage: "it's not rocket science!" Meaning, whatever you're talking about is understandable or not that hard. To the average person, rocket science is believed to be very difficult to understand or you have to be brilliant to do so. To a rocket scientist, however, it just makes sense. What's the difference between the average person and the scientist? Education, interest, and the belief that the information is... Read More

In my last blog, What Kind of A Boss Are You? , we saw that "Team Body" does the best job it can given the leadership, tools and materials provided by its "Mind-Boss". The body gives feedback all the time about whether the leadership and materials are sufficient or not. How do you know? It tells you. It speaks. As the boss, you might not have ever learned its language (who thought you needed to?) Maybe you've relied on interpreters. Great interpreters are highly valuable;but if they're off duty when the team is ready to strike, you... Read More

When you think about it, it's pretty miraculous that your body's innate intelligence keeps you alive with fairly minimal participation on your part. Your role? Provide the materials it needs: water, nourishment, sleep, and movement. Everything else happens without your conscious participation. You don't have to understand it or pay attention for your cells, organs, and systems to continually operate for highest function and health. The system is extraordinary. It's also familiar. It's your body. You've been living in it for years. And... Read More

A predominant myth in our culture is "No pain-no gain." In addition to athletics, it permeates beliefs with regard to healing. I say "no pain-no gain" is a bald-faced lie. In sports or working out, you can argue the merits of pushing the body through its limits to increase its capacity for greater strength or endurance. But why is that belief so common when it comes to healing? Therapies that initiate pain or discomfort first and then provide relief, fuel the underlying assumption that some kind of pain is necessary in order to... Read More

The idea that you can partner with your body is somewhat novel to many people. Isn't your body something you have and manage? It's great when you're young (even if you don't appreciate it at that time) and then it becomes a pain, literally somewhere down the timeline. When I became a massage therapist in 1999, I was eager to learn as much about the body as possible because I wanted to help many people. What I couldn't have known then is how that knowledge would change my perspective, my life, and my own health. What is one of the basic... Read More

So far, this series has been looking at pain through the lens of the western medical model. Today the lens is being widened to let more light in on the subject. Notwithstanding its contributions, the drawbacks of the traditional medical model are significant: side effects, potential drug dependency and lethal interactions, not to mention the risks associated with surgery. In the western model, the body is seen as something to fix. Pain is something to manage, and imbalance or disease something to conquer through external means. Pain has... Read More

In my view, the opioid addiction epidemic is evidence of how deeply steeped our nation is in the conventional medical model (drugs/surgery) of treating imbalances of body or mind. Certainly, sales messaging touting pharmaceuticals as the "best" means to "treat" the body or mind perpetuates that conditioning and belief system. The indoctrination is pervasive and commonplace. It has simply become ACCEPTED that when one takes prescription meds or over-the-counter drugs to EXPECT side effects. My question is: WHY is that acceptable? ... Read More

In this series, I will be sharing information about the current models for dealing with pain and the costs they wrest from individuals, families, and society as a whole. Twice in the same week, I have happened across radio stories of the current epidemic of drug addiction in the U.S. Neither was about the stereotypical heroin addict seen in TV dramas and movies. The subject was pain and the conversation revolved around prescription opioid addiction. On June 5, 2017, just 14 months after the original post of this blog,the matter is... Read More

Last week we talked about the first two myths of pain. Today I'm going to speak to three more. Myth 3 - If Pain Lasts for a While, It Means It Will be Here Forever It's ironic, but the mind has a short memory. You can be healthy for forty or fifty years, have one physical challenge that lasts a few weeks, months, or maybe even several years, and the mind concedes that it will be like this for the rest of your life. That is not necessarily true but the mind which magnifies your experiences can make it feel like that. Having pain over... Read More

Every day, millions of people experience pain. Headaches, body aches, joint aches, sharp stabbing pain, dull achy pain, pain that comes and goes, and pain that comes and seems to stay. Billions of dollars are spent for pain relief;and sometimes at best, it's a crap shoot as what to pick to try to relieve it. Being in pain and not knowing what it is or how to relieve is frustrating, annoying, and it can just plain make you cranky. I'd like to speak to five myths - underlying common beliefs that keep you stuck in pain so that you can start to... Read More