The truth that many people never understand, until it is too late, is that the more you try to avoid suffering, the more you suffer, because smaller and more insignificant things begin to torture you in proportion to your fear of being hurt.
- Thomas Merton
Average Read Time: 00:04:15
Your body, on fire.
Imagine that you’re behind the wheel of your car and you’ve stopped at a red light. Suddenly, another vehicle slams into you. Boom! Glass shatters and you get thrown around like a rag doll. Your back sears with pain. Every movement you make hurts.
While trying to recuperate, you go through traditional medicine, physiotherapy, chiropractic and massage therapy. You get some sense of relief, but the pain echos. Nothing seems to work. Even if it gets a little better, sometimes your back feels like it is on fire. Dull aches echo day after day.
You begin to notice what hurts the most: picking anything up off the floor. So, you stop picking things up off the floor. You fear that every time you bend over it will hurt. You begin to limit all bending with your back, for fear that it will hurt. It’s not long before you are doing less and less everyday, until it is too late. You are so immobile that every movement you make hurts, and you feel like you are in a prison. Everything outside of this prison is pain, and you feel trapped.
Dr. Jerome Groopman’s Story
I originally read the story of Dr. Jerome Groopman in his NY Times Bestselling novel, The Anatomy of Hope
To sum up the incredible story, he first explains that he ruptured a lumbar disc in training for the Boston Marathon. He recounts surgeries, medicines, and all sorts of alternative therapies he employed in order to alleviate his back pain. Twenty years after the injury, the tipping point occurred. A bad massage therapy experience had worsened his condition and then upon a recommendation from a colleague and rheumatologist, he went to seek care from a rehabilitation specialist by the name of Dr. James Rainville of the New England Baptist Hospital.
After closely listening to Dr. Groopman and examining him, he gave an great analogy. I will not paraphase these words:
“You are worshipping the volcano god of pain,” he declared. “The volcano god is your master.”
I had been warned that Rainville was a brash, in-your-face clinician who held contrarian views. But what the hell was he talking about?
“What do I mean that you are worshipping the volcano god of pain? he asked. “You interpret pain as a red flag, a warning that you are doing damage to your body. So you sacrifice things that you love, activities that give your life joy, to be kept free from pain. You say to the volcano god: ‘I will give up walking long distances if you keep me out of pain. I will give up travel, because long trips stress my spine. Just keep me from the pain.’
“But this god is never fully satisfied with any offering: It is appeased for only a short while. So the more you sacrifice, the more the god demands, until you life contracts, as it has, into a very, very narrow space.
“I believe you can be freed from your pain. I believe you can rebuild yourself and do much, much more.”
So what was the method? What was the miracle to fix Dr. Groopman’s condition?
“Ignore the pain, Dr. Rainville shot back. “No more worshipping this god. No more sacrifices. Just disregard its demands. The pain doesn’t mean anything serious. As your mind reorients its beliefs, the pain will lessen. Once that happens, you will be able to rebuild your body. It won’t be easy or quick or without setbacks. The muscles in your lower back are at thirty percent of your normal tone. Your ligaments and tendons are contracted from your lack of use. They carry a memory of the trauma done to you, and they recall the pain at the slightest provocation. By using your spine, muscles, and
ligaments, and by strengthening them, you erase that memory. You compensate for the damage that was done and live a normal life again.”
Having a mind like water
There is an old Karate saying that has become popular in recent years through the Getting Things Done movement, started by David Allen. The saying is, “have a mind like water.” If you were to throw a stone into a pool of water, it would ripple, wave after wave, equivalent to the force and weight of the stone. Then, the waves die down, and the water becomes still. Allow your mind to mimic that path. Let your mind take all influence with the appropriate reaction, and then, allow the waves to die down, and become still.
Many times I have seen the body respond like Jerome Groopman’s did. The body gets jarred, heals and then adapts. But that adaptation can limit your life. If you get into a car accident, you become afraid to drive. You get food poisoning from a lobster that you ate at a seafood restaurant and you never eat a delicious lobster again. The memory or pain should fade. You should no longer pay homage to this volcano god of pain.
So…. Ignore the pain?
Pain can be the body’s signal to tell you that something is wrong. If you hurt yourself at a gym, and your body seems to be screaming at you to tell you to stop, stop. Treatments like physiotherapy, chiropractic, and massage work. If you do injure yourself at a gym, go to your family doctor. Find a balance with your therapy. Be aggressive but not too aggressive. Be cautious but not too cautious. Remember to have a mind like water, let your mind take all the influence with the appropriate reaction, and then allow the waves to die down, and become still.
If you want to purchase this highly recommended book, The Anatomy of Hope, you can do so here
Your Digital Trainer,
Jeremiah
Comments: Do you experience pain on a day to day basis? What comprimises have you done with your life?
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