2018

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How to Cope with Physical Pain

By Dr. Sue Morter

No one likes to feel pain, yet chronic pain has become so prevalent in our society, it almost seems to be the norm for many people. According to the American Academy of Pain Medicine, pain affects more Americans than diabetes, heart disease and cancer combined. One in 10 Americans experience pain every day for three months or more with an estimated 1.5 billion people suffering from chronic pain world-wide (National Institutes of Health).

Chronic Pain Is A Blockage of Energy In The Body
When looking at pain through the lens of Energy Medicine, chronic pain is nothing more than a blockage of energy flow. In our most natural state, energy flows freely through our bodies constantly. When it becomes blocked, it begins building up, much in the way water pools when restricted by a dam. It’s this “pool” of energy that creates overstimulation, irritation and inflammation, resulting in pain in our physical bodies.

TIPS TO CREATE FLOW AGAIN IN THE BODY AND REDUCE OR
ELIMINATE PAIN ALL TOGETHER

Pay Attention to Pain
As a culture, we often turn to medication, surgeries or other tactics to help deal with the pain we feel. So often we focus on alleviating the symptoms of the discomfort rather than addressing the original cause of the pain in the first place.

To get the energy moving, we need to get to the root cause, or the initial blockage of energy.

When we do, we allow the body to access its natural self-healing capacity. The body knows what to do to heal chronic pain as well. If it isn’t healing the pain pattern, there is a reason.

The body was designed to heal itself. If you cut yourself, it heals. If you break a bone, it heals.

Hierarchy of Healing
The body heals on a first priority basis, and its first priority is survival. If we experience pain for a prolonged period of time, it’s because there’s a more important issue the body needs to try and heal first.

If you have a chemical imbalance created by stress or improper nutrition, your body will work to remedy the chemical imbalance rather than deal with a less important issue such as back pain or headaches. Unresolved issues can also delay the body in healing itself. If we are currently under a state of stress, or experienced stress from years ago that never really resolved, it can keep our system in a fight or flight mode, which keeps the nervous system from activating its other main mode of function, which is healing.

Whatever the issue, the body won’t heal because it has to deal with what it considers the most important issue first. So chronic, unrelenting pain patterns in the body are caused by the body not prioritizing that issue.

Squeeze. Breathe. Move the pain.
How do we alleviate our pain when the body is focused on other, higher priority issues of healing? We find the area of pain, breathe into it and move it through our body consciously.

  1. Make a connection with the painful area
    So often when we have pain, such as chronic hip or knee pain, we move away from the pain by disconnecting from our body and the area that is hurting. Instead, we need to focus on the painful area and squeeze it. This allows the body and mind to connect with the painful area, and from here, the nervous system can start to evaluate what is happening.
  2. Breathing to dissipate the blocked energy
    Next, breathe through the painful area. The breath will help dissipate some of the energy locked in the area. When doing this, see if you can feel where the energy is flowing and where it’s not. Find where the pain is and squeeze it as you breathe deeply into this place.
  3. How to move the energy through the body
    Finally, as you squeeze into the area that is hurting, imagine breathing that pain up toward your heart. From here, exhale it up and out of the throat, and then as if you were breathing out the top of your head. By doing this, you are moving the energy beyond the painful area and distributing it through your entire body, thereby decreasing the buildup of energy, which is causing the pain and pressure, and ultimately irritation and inflammation in the tissues.
    We can decrease inflammation rapidly in this fashion, if we learn how to breathe this pattern of energy up through the central channel of the body and exhale, releasing it out the top of the head.

Does this actually work?
Someone suffering from chronic pain might think, “So, I’ve been hurting for six months and you’re telling me that I just squeeze this, and breathe a little, it’s going to go away finally?”

And the answer is, yes.

If you do this practice with your full concentration – heart, mind and breath – the muscle fibers that have been knotted up will start to stretch open, allowing the energy to start moving. It’s important to keep our concentration on the central channel of the body, as well as the area that is hurting, as we relax and continue breathing through the affected area.

The more you can open and release this area through your breath, the more all of our resources can come together and begin to establish the healing patterns in the nervous system again.

From muscle cramps to cancer
This simple “Squeeze – Breathe – Move the energy” technique can work with any level of pain including muscle cramps, slipped disks and even cancer.

Muscle Cramps
When muscles are contracted for a prolonged period of time, lactic acid begins to build in the tissues causing pain, cramping and soreness. When we squeeze the tissues and breathe into them the way it is described above (similar to a massage in the body), the breath begins to break up the lactic acid deposits and starts to mobilize the chemistry in the body once again.

Bulging Disk
When you knock a vertebrae out of position, which pinches a nerve or causes a disc to bulge and press on the nerves, this too is a result of an imbalance in the flow of energy through the system. When this happens, go inward toward the pain, squeeze it and breathe upward through the central channel. Your body will begin to reestablish its natural system that would have been healing that situation all along.

Cancer and Chronic Disease
The physical pain of chronic degenerative diseases such as cancers, arthritis, heart conditions and other circulatory issues, are all improved and enhance by getting the body’s energy moving through the breath work again. As that breath begins to happen though the body, chemistry changes in the body, and alkalizing chemicals are then more prevalent, which decreases the irritation and inflammation that come with so many chronic degenerative diseases.

Easing the Pain of Recovery
Someone who’s just gone through open heart surgery or going through chemotherapy can use the same techniques between their sessions and after their surgery to help alleviate pain and facilitate a faster recovery period. The “Squeeze – Breathe – Move the energy” technique also works to flush the system and get energy and vital life force moving through the body again. In between chemotherapy sessions, an individual might experience extreme nausea and other discomforts. When they focus on the painful area squeeze it with a gentle squeeze, as if you’re hugging yourself, then breathe up and down the central channel of the spine, allows the system to distribute this energy more profoundly and holistically throughout the whole system, thereby eliciting the healing response even faster.

Not Only Heals, but Strengthens
The above technique can not only help alleviate the pain and get the energy moving again, but can also be used to strengthen the affected area. In pregnancy, for example, when a woman reaches her third trimester, she often has extraordinary back pain that comes with carrying the extra weight of the child. By flexing the low back just enough to take the strain off and squeezing that area, rolling your attention up the spine while you breath, allows you to build new circuitry and communication of the electromagnetic energy flow in the body. This technique distributes that strain throughout the whole body and allows it to be dissolved.

Dr. Sue Morter from Morter Institute bridges science, spirit and human possibility.

For over 30 years, she has been teaching health care practitioners, patients and students integrative approaches to wellness, based in quantum science and energy medicine.

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Taming the “Monkey” Mind

By Dr. Sue Morter

These days, life moves at a rapid pace and racing along with it is our tired, over-worked mind. With everything we have to do each day, we are constantly thinking and over-thinking. If we’re not thinking about what we need to accomplish for our day, we’re thinking about what we’re going to be doing tomorrow or what we wish we would have done differently yesterday.

This type of thinking is often referred to as the “monkey mind” and can be a huge contributor to the stress we experience in our lives.

Did you know that stress is the basic cause of 60% of all human illness and disease? 44% of stressed people lose sleep every night and a loss of sleep and sleep deprivation contributes to being deficient in performing simple daily tasks, among other ailments.

When the world doesn’t feel like it’s slowing down anytime soon, how do we address the spinning thoughts and stress created from our monkey minds each day?

We can do this as easily as slowing the breath, connecting with our core self and becoming mindful in every situation. According to findings published in JAMA Internal Medicine, the practice of mindfulness and meditation can help ease psychological stresses like anxiety, depression, and pain.

Similar to a ceiling fan turning overhead, our thinking mind is spinning all the time. At this fast-paced speed, one would never consider poking their fingers through the turning blades of the fan in the same way the truth of who we are is unable to pierce the rapidly churning thoughts of our mind. With the constant generation of thoughts, the truth of us, the loving compassion and essential self, never gets to rise up beyond our thinking mind.

To allow this true essential part of ourselves to express itself, we need to learn to slow the rapidly spinning thoughts of the mind. When we slow the mind, it begins to move in rhythm with this true essence of who we are. From here we can actually move beyond the thinking mind to experience a greater version of who we truly are.

Slowing the Breath is Slowing the Mind
To slow the mind, we first need to pay attention to our breathing. When we breathe more slowly and deeply into the body, the thinking mind begins to respond in accordance to that. The body is operating at a much slower frequency than the mind, so breathing into the belly this way as we bring our mind’s attention to the body, we slow the mind automatically, getting it into the same rate and rhythm of our true nature. When we do this, we bring our energy from our head down into the heart space, the wisdom space, or the place within each of us where our truth resides.

Whenever you are experiencing a busy day and your mind is spinning like that turbulent ceiling fan, bring your attention into your core and breathe deeply into your belly. Slow your breath way down so that you begin to slow the mind down, dropping it into a deeper sense of presence.

Technique to Get Back in Your Center
From this place, begin squeezing the tissues in the core of your body, from the deep abdominal areas to your heart space, getting the attention of your mind. Tighten the muscles at the base of the pelvic bowl, known as “Mula Bandha,” which is a Sanskrit term for ‘root lock.’ It means locking the consciousness down into the body, instead in the head where we tend to live.

The best way to do this is to contract these muscles to anchor yourself in the present moment. With everything squeezed tightly, take a big breath down in the belly to create a resistance the mind can sense and feel. This is how the mind begins to attain the awareness of self, or a sense of groundedness and anchoredness, which continues to slow the mind as well.

As you’re contracting the core of the body, breathing into the belly and up and down the spine, infuse your breath with the simple thought that, “All is well.” Remind yourself there has been a wave of grace carrying you through all of your life which has brought you to this very moment. You’ve made it through all the things you’d never thought you would make it through because you were carried on this wave of grace every step of the way. Even when the going got rough, you got through.

Simply by bringing the mind to this idea that there’s a wave of grace flowing through your life as you bring your attention to the body and slow your breath, you can catch that wave. When you do, you can finally sense and perceive that all is taken care of, and your mind can finally begin to settle.

When your mind settles and comes under your command and control, this is when the true essence of your being, your Essential Self, gets to have a mind, one that it has more direction over, rather than the mind running out of control and affecting your life experience.


Other Tips for Taming the Mind

Mantra:
If you tend to learn from an auditory standpoint more easily, then repeating a mantra is also good for your nervous system to help you calm down or tame a rapidly spinning mind. Repeating a phrase over and over, even something as simple as, “All is well, all is well,” or “I’m okay,” can help to slow the mind. You can also use traditional Eastern culture’s Sanskrit terms such as “Sat Nam, Sat Nam, Sat Nam,” or “Om.” Or, simply allow a deep slow breath to be heard as you are breathing in and out, a calming sigh of relief repeated over and over a few times. Saying something internally doesn’t have to be audible in the outer world, but repeating these sounds inside your own mind and heart will slow that ‘monkey mind’ down.

Follow the Breath:
If you’re a kinesthetic learner, it might be more helpful for you to pay attention and follow the breath. As you breath in, follow the breath all the way down to the lower lobes of your lungs and then exhale back up and out your nose, then inhale through the nose and allow that breath to come deep into the body.

Visual:
If you are a visual learner, light a candle or simply roll a pen on your desk. You can also focus on a single point, such as the corner of your keyboard or an image on the wall. Not looking at anything else, not allowing yourself to be distracted, simply focus the mind to steady itself, allowing every bit of your conscious concentration to focus on the pen, the corner of the keyboard, or any object you’ve chosen. Doing this slows the mind down, keeping it from acting like a runaway train.

 

Dr. Sue Morter from Morter Institute bridges science, spirit and human possibility.

For over 30 years, she has been teaching health care practitioners, patients and students integrative approaches to wellness, based in quantum science and energy medicine.