Are you “managing” your pain…or learning from it?

Inflammation. ❌

This picture was taken 15 years ago after I received cupping for a bad cold. (It worked by the way- my old colleague, Acupuncturist Taug Boschen, caught my cough as it was settling into upper respiratory infection territory and he completely resolved it with one treatment.🤯

I have done a LOT of cupping, acupuncture, physical therapy, massage, ultrasound, e-stim, you-name-it to treat the chronic upper back and neck pain I experienced from the age of 15-25. I no longer could reach my arm overhead, my neck would spasm, AND I was a super fit, “healthy” personal trainer putting in long hours. The body truly is amazing in its ability to hold multiple realities (for a while).

So when I say I feel your pain, I quite literally mean it. 💔

I believe my pain in this area originated from three things: 
1. being a backrow volleyball player/ server (overuse injury)
2. genetically having hypermobile joints, thereby more susceptible to injury without stabilizing exercise
3. emotional- still working on discovering this. 

I knew I could no longer in good conscience continue training people while enduring this pain. Was I training them to be in pain like me? I felt like a hypocrite. 

When I attended a fitness conference in 2008 and discovered MELT Method, everything changed. I immediately felt better. With time and practice, I no longer felt victimized by the next time my neck would “randomly” spasm. I had tools that in conjunction with those other therapies, was finally working. I had found the missing link in the health of my connective tissue.

Pain Management are two words that DO NOT belong together.

Becoming empowered and stepping into your role as the expert on your own body and its relationship with your mind and emotions is how we eradicate pain. I don’t know about you, but I do not have time to manage another thing! 🙅‍♀️

Often folks reach out to me when they have tried everything. While all of those modalities I mentioned are fantastic, the missing piece for me and for many, is having a robust toolbox of daily home restorative practices and trying my best to have a moment each day for my body, even if it is just taking 10 deep breaths before hopping out of bed.

As we begin to establish frequency of easy and sustainable practices, the body follows.