Calming The Nervous System

Many factors influence your perception of pain. Stress, anxiety, depression, problems at work, family issues, financial difficulties, and many other factors impact how your nervous system reacts to the environment. Finding strategies to reduce stress, anxiety, and depression can be key to helping you maximize your progress. This section will provide some resources for dealing with negative thoughts and emotions. For some people, these strategies are not sufficient and they need the help of a qualified healthcare professional, such as a social worker, psychologist, or psychiatrist.

Positive self-talk

We all have inner dialogues in our mind. When we are dealing with difficult situations, such as chronic pain, it is easy to get into the habit of having a negative inner dialogue. These negative thoughts can become a barrier to recovery. Start by noticing your inner dialogue and reflect on whether it is primarily positive or negative. If you find yourself having a lot of negative thoughts, it may be useful to discuss this with your physical therapist. The worksheets and resources below can help you work on expanding your positive self-talk.

Engagement in Meaningful Activities and Relationships

When dealing with chronic pain it can be easy to isolate yourself and pull back from the meaningful things that you enjoy. This could be avoiding social situations, like going to lunch with friends, talking walks with family, or even work. Even if you can't do everything you used to do, it is important for you to find fulfilling and meaningful activities that you can engage in. If your pain is preventing you from engaging in an activity, talk to you physical therapist and they can help you develop a plan to overcome this obstetrical.

Relaxation

Our minds are constantly working and are often hard to turn down. We may be thinking about all the tasks we need to accomplish, we may be worried about a family member, stressed about work, or filled with negative self-talk. At times, our thoughts can get out of control and lead to more stress, anxiety, and pain. There are ways to take control of your thoughts and turn down the volume. Below is a list of tools to help you with this process. Like all our tasks, this should be systematic, planned, and monitored.