How To Use Your Body's Own Protection System To 'Think' Your Pain Away
Pain's #1 objective is to protect you, but you don't have to let it control you.
Hans Isaacson | Unsplash Since your nervous system needs to be in a space of safety to regulate and allow the body to properly heal, taking the time and care to integrate the brain science behind chronic conditions is a worthwhile effort. You will often hear me mention that my work has three facets: Believe, Do the Work, and Patience and Kindness for Yourself.
Like the legs of a stool, all three are required to build the kind of foundation that supports robust wellness. As you embark on the journey to address your chronic pain, walk mindfully through this important content. Doing so will create new neural pathways of understanding, helping to cement your confidence in this process and why it works.
How to use your body's protection system to manage chronic pain
Belief is your safe passage—the door through which all healing resides. Why? Because your perception is your reality. Believing in the science of TMS (tension myositis syndrome) sends a message of safety to the nervous system, and that is where the modern miracles of mind-body medicine reveal themselves.
Understand the physiology of pain
You are in pain, and the sensation of pain is the sensation of pain. The reason anyone suffers in any and every capacity is that pain signals are being fired by the brain and nervous system, landing in different bodily systems and muscle groups. To understand why these signals are working overtime in this manner, we need to ask ourselves a critical question: Why? Why are they being initiated?
This is where the amygdala comes in. This small, almond-shaped area of your brain is part of the limbic system, the neural network that is responsible for emotional processing. The amygdala is one of the most primitive brain structures. It has existed in human beings (not to mention all mammals) since the beginning. It may be a tiny structure, but it is mighty.
This is the spot where the fight-or-flight response, our automatic physiological reaction to stressful or frightening stimuli, originates. What does that have to do with your pain? When you break a bone, tear a muscle, or cut or burn your skin, the nerves from that area of the body send an SOS signal to the brain letting it know that you are in trouble. The brain then sends a pain signal in response.
It does so for good reason. I repeat: Pain’s number one objective is to protect you. Remember that in ancient times, when we injured ourselves in a way that required assistance, our survival hinged on getting help before we became so vulnerable that we could be attacked or eaten. Pain is the messenger, alerting you that it’s time to attend to your body to avert a disastrous end.
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The amygdala, which is sometimes referred to as the “reptilian brain” because evolutionary biologists believe such regions dominate the behavior of reptiles and other more primitive animals, is exactly the same as it was in our earliest relatives. Although human beings have developed far more complex and sophisticated brain structures that allow us to reason and create in constantly evolving ways, this survival hub remains unchanged.
The reason the fight-or-flight response hasn’t evolved over generations is that in many ways it hasn’t needed to. Human beings require a lot of help getting through life, down to basic survival. Thanks to the amygdala, you automatically pull your hand off a burning pot handle before your skin melts off. In a split second, you jump out of the way before a speeding vehicle makes an impact.
These reactions are not something you have conscious control over—and you shouldn’t! If human beings had to consider whether to recoil from something that had the power to end us, most of us wouldn’t be here to tell the tale. We gratefully sigh with relief when our “catlike” reflexes keep us from injury, never comprehending that the same automatic and life-saving process is also responsible for keeping us chronically ill.
The reason for this confused protection lies in understanding the concept of predators. Life is full of them. Back in the day it might have been a larger animal or the flames of a fire that moved too close. Today, perhaps it’s the neighbor’s snarling dog or the backyard grill you realize someone forgot to turn off as you’re attempting to clean it. A predator, for the purposes of this discussion, is anything that you could consciously or unconsciously perceive as a threat to your life or safety.
Back in the day, a saber-toothed tiger would be a pretty straightforward threat. If you sensed this predator approaching in the grass, you might first become very still, assessing whether it had seen you (freeze). If it began to run toward you, the brain would send messages to your adrenal glands to start pumping adrenaline and cortisol, allowing you to hopefully run to safety (flight). If you found yourself in the unfortunate situation of having nowhere left to flee, you might pick up a weapon and begin swinging it at the creature (fight).
During this acute and immediate experience, your whole body would be on board to help you survive. Systems like circulation and respiration would optimize for the battle, whereas digestion and elimination would essentially grind to a halt—there is no time to worry about hunger or using the bathroom when you’re fighting for your life! And obviously, although it can’t be a win every time, this hardwired reflexive process has allowed humankind to continue surviving, thriving, and propagating the species for millennia.
'Reprogram' your brain's reaction to pain signals
Here's a fun fact: If you injured yourself while running from the tiger, you would not feel any pain until you were out of imminent danger. The brain not only has the capacity to create physical pain; it also has the power to inhibit it. The nervous system will not let anything get in the way of your protection. Once that saber-toothed tiger was well out of sight, the pain would begin at the site of the injury, letting you know that you needed to attend to it.
Take note again that the brain can both generate pain in the body and terminate it. It’s essential to understand the different things that this incredible organ can do, especially as we examine what happens to your body when the predators chasing you aren’t as obvious.
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Your nervous system acts as your body’s sentinel. It is taking in information from the outside world—and surveying the landscape to keep you safe. When it encounters an injury, illness, or stressful situation, it sends a red alert to the brain. You need to act to stay safe—and you need to act now! These signals may result in the brain prepping your body to fly, fight, freeze, or fawn. But it may also respond to the sentinel’s warning by sending out pain signals so your body can go into rest-and-repair mode.
These processes are essential to your survival. It’s all too easy to see how they work when you are faced with a hungry tiger or out-of-control flames. What’s harder to understand is that the same dynamic can be triggered by the predators within us.
This article is an excerpt from Nicole Sach's book: Mind Your Body: A revolutionary program to release chronic pain and anxiety. For more on this program and Nicole's work, listen to her full appearance on Getting Open With Andrea Miller on YouTube or any of your favorite podcast outlets.
Nicole Sachs has researched chronic conditions and guided many to freedom from chronic illness for over 20 years through her psychotherapy practice. Facing a future of debilitating pain, she discovered Dr. John Sarno’s work and reclaimed her life. She transitioned from Sarno’s patient to his colleague, lecturing with him at NYU and supporting his patients through her practice. Her book is available now.