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Alan has completed the new Pain Recovery Program. To read or share it, use this updated link: https://www.tmswiki.org/forum/painrecovery/
Neural pathways of pain?
- Thread starter Buckyblue
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- neural pathways
TG957
Beloved Grand Eagle
It is a very good question. Brain is a very complex machine, and I can only give you a lay person's understanding as I am not a neuroscientist. When we experience stress that results in negative emotions, the hormones associated with those emotions activate a certian brain circuitry, but it happens unconsciously. If we are conscious about our emotions, we consicously activate a different circuit which does not involve nerve endings in the areas where we feel pain. Part of somatic experience is to learn how to feel emotions the most natural way instead of feeding physical pain signals into the body. For some people it is an easy exercise, but for those whose nervous system is less flexible or more overstressed, it takes more time and effort to reprogram.
I am sure a good neuroscientist can give you more detailed and more scientific understanding of the reprogramming mechanism, but hope what I said would be good enough.
I am sure a good neuroscientist can give you more detailed and more scientific understanding of the reprogramming mechanism, but hope what I said would be good enough.
The book cure is a feeling of relief/relaxation after settling down emotionally. Sometimes it takes longer for the body to physically adjust if there's different symptoms. It depends on the stress response.
I've realised through journaling that I wasn't feeling emotions at all really.
I couldn't put a name to them as I'd become almost numb, but didn't realise it.
I've posted on another thread about an experience I had journaling about a childhood event and started to feel quite nauseous. I stayed with the feeling, instead of distracting myself with a cigarette, sweet or by holding my breath, and realised that it was loneliness that I was feeling (at the time of the event) and then that it was in fact sadness.
The practice of experiencing my feelings safely through journaling has helped me identify and own up to my real feelings now.
Another example - last year I ended a 40 year relationship with my 'best friend' as I realised it was completely toxic. A week ago my mum phoned me to 'remind' me that it was the friend's birthday and then went on to deliberate about when she should send a card to arrive on time. I put the phone down and began furiously cleaning the kitchen floor, talking to myself about how angry I was with her for sending a card.
When I began to write it up in my journal, I realised that the 'anger' was a mask and I started crying and realised that what I was feeling was betrayal which was really sadness.
I think that for those of us who have learned to dampen down our feelings over decades, reading the book and recognising yourself in the pages, is the first step to reorganising the way you really feel as opposed to thinking that you feel a certain way. The practice of really feeling is what helps to reset and retrain the neural pathways IMO.
I couldn't put a name to them as I'd become almost numb, but didn't realise it.
I've posted on another thread about an experience I had journaling about a childhood event and started to feel quite nauseous. I stayed with the feeling, instead of distracting myself with a cigarette, sweet or by holding my breath, and realised that it was loneliness that I was feeling (at the time of the event) and then that it was in fact sadness.
The practice of experiencing my feelings safely through journaling has helped me identify and own up to my real feelings now.
Another example - last year I ended a 40 year relationship with my 'best friend' as I realised it was completely toxic. A week ago my mum phoned me to 'remind' me that it was the friend's birthday and then went on to deliberate about when she should send a card to arrive on time. I put the phone down and began furiously cleaning the kitchen floor, talking to myself about how angry I was with her for sending a card.
When I began to write it up in my journal, I realised that the 'anger' was a mask and I started crying and realised that what I was feeling was betrayal which was really sadness.
I think that for those of us who have learned to dampen down our feelings over decades, reading the book and recognising yourself in the pages, is the first step to reorganising the way you really feel as opposed to thinking that you feel a certain way. The practice of really feeling is what helps to reset and retrain the neural pathways IMO.