Take a moment to scan your body from head to toe. Are there places where you feel tightness, soreness, fatigue, or pain? What messages do you think your body is sending you through these sensations? Just as importantly, are you listening to them?

This episode features two guests, starting with Greg, whose journey with pain demonstrates the value in connection with our body’s physical and energetic needs.  Informed by years of martial arts practice, Greg learned to listen to his body, and found motivation to pursue alternatives for managing his pain without sacrificing his lifestyle or passions. We also hear from Michele, co-founder of a movement and healing arts studio in Seattle by the name of Shift, where you’ll find classes in T’ai Chi, Pilates, Kung Fu, and dance. She adds another perspective on tuning in to the body.

Your body is talking to you throughout the day. Are you tuning in or tuning it out? 

Key Points from this Episode:

• Tuning in to pain versus tuning pain out
• Interoception: the sensation of our physiological systems
• Listening to the body as a way to develop context for good and bad sensations
• The benefits of bodywork (acupuncture, massage, chiropractic) in helping us hear our bodies before, during, and after treatments
• Belief, optimism, and conviction in one’s abilities to overcome adversity (pain or otherwise)
• Pain and injury aversion leading to fear and counterproductive withdrawal from activities, particularly in adults
• Balancing the social and communal aspects of activities with mechanical and physical impacts
• There’s not one “right” or “wrong” way of performing actions, which must account for individual bodies and unique environmental circumstances
• Tai chi’s impact on the energetic and anatomical levels
• Energy “flow” through the human body: chi, kinetic, thermodynamic
• Trusting your own expertise about your body and what’s right for it
• Relief from pain as a way to re-set the nervous system response to pain

 Links Related to this Episode:

• Assessment, Physiological Monitoring and Consequences of Inadequately Treated Acute Pain
• What is Interoception?
• Optimism and the Experience of Pain
• Balance Confidence and Fear of Falling: Falling in Older Adults: A Prospective Analysis
• The Scientific Hypothesis of an "Energy System" in the Human Body
• Biopsychosocial Care for Chronic Back Pain
• Injuries in Judo: a systematic literature review
• Risk of Cervical Injury in Mixed Martial Arts
• Acupuncture therapy: mechanism of action...

Featured  Businesses:  

• shiftseattle.com/
• weeditpodcasts.com

Connect With the Show:

• stopeverydaypain.com
• facebook.com/everydaypainguide
• facebook.com/groups/everydaypainforum
• twitter.com/noeverydaypain

Music from this Episode:

• Eric and Magill 
• Samuel Vas-Y 
• Liam Fitzgerald and the Rainieros