If you’re experiencing chronic pain from a condition like arthritis, endometriosis or repetitive strain injury, you’ll be pleased to know there is relief available, and not only through drugs or surgery. New scientific understandings of how pain works reveal how you can take control of it yourself and live with more peace, happiness and freedom.
In this video I introduce this video series on pain, answering questions like "how does pain work?", "what is pain?" and "what is the best pain relief?" We will also be looking into how hypnotherapy can reduce and even eliminate long-term chronic pain, enabling you to live with more peace, happiness and freedom.
What is pain? How does pain work? These are the questions answered in today's video. Pain is created in the brain as a protective mechanism, telling you to stop what you're doing, give the wound some attention and stay safe. We can make that pain better by calming down, breathing slowly and reminding our brain that we're not in danger, or we can make it worse by stressing, complaining or worrying. Pain is subjective. The meaning we attach to it determines how much it hurts.
Pain can be learned, just like a habit or a fear. Here we explore how the brain can become too good at creating pain, even when there’s no immediate damage. This is the science behind persistent, chronic pain. If pain is protection, not damage, then learning to feel safe again can be the key to relief. If you suffer from an autoimmune disorder, like fibromyalgia, endometriosis, or arthritis, understand you are not broken. Your nervous system is just trying to protect you, and you can retrain it.
In the 1840s, before modern anaesthesia was widely available, a young Scottish surgeon named James Esdaile performed hundreds of operations in India using nothing but the power of suggestion and the mind.
