The Power of Mindset

I was thinking about my interpretation of pain sensation a lot after listening to the "Tell me about your pain" podcast. I guess I wanted to share an analogy I came up with from my personal experiences.

For most of my life I have been a serious exerciser, sometimes a serious athlete. Pain is part of training. When I would work out long and hard, the pain I felt during and after could be intense. When I felt it, I wasn't scared by it at all - in fact I felt pleased by it. The pain was positive reinforcement that I had pushed hard and my body was adapting and getting stronger. I could feel that pain and keep going - even set it aside and forget it was there.

I continue to exercise as I head over the hill, since my volunteer job requires a level of fitness and grace I don't possess naturally. I was pulling back from it due to pain after a misdiagnosis of psoriatic arthritis. That change in mindset from earned pain to scary disease pain was crippling - my pain became enormous and threatening. When the only thing that changed was my mindset, it is astounding to me how different and intense everything felt.

Anyway, hope this helps someone.

 

Definitely. I think the fear that diseases and labels instill can make things 10 times worse. I wish I hadn't read about certain conditions associated with the types of pain/symptoms I'm having, because the biggest thing stalling me is "what if I resume normal physical activity, shift attention to the emotional world, and make myself WORSE?" Becoming more detached from the significance of symptoms feels like half the battle.