your experiences are unique to you and ever-changing
You are you, unique, and no-one else is or can be you.
Now you know that your experiences are being generated by your body systems.
So your experiences are unique as well.
One offs.
Never to be repeated because each moment is new.
What does that mean for treatment, therapy and help?
It means they must be personalised to you.
To meet your specific needs.
To support and guide you to take steps towards your picture(s) of success.
The work is shaping your experiences for the better.
Creating the conditions so you move forward.
Moving forward is not linear.
It requires a daily practice (skills, strategies and know-how).
When you practice, you do not always feel a result.
But results will come when you are consistent.
You can celebrate your success — success is practicing the best way you can, rather than a focus on just the numbers.
Success is peace of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming.
~ John Wooden
The numbers or results are out of your control. Your approach and attitude are within your control. Measuring your own success by what you can control is motivating. If you base it only on the uncontrollables, it comes and goes.
Needs over numbers and principles over protocols make it personalised.
Using numbers and protocols assume you are the same as everyone else. You are not.
They assume you are at the same point. You are not.
They assume you have the same needs as everyone else. You don’t.
Clarifying your needs
Overcoming chronic pain and other symptoms means you are meeting your needs.
You may know some of them.
They may not all be clear.
Caring conversations about your experiences, beliefs and expectations reveal your needs.
They reveal where you are stuck, which in turn reveals the work to be done.
To get unstuck.
Some examples of unmet needs:
- living someone else’s values — revealed by the ‘shoulds’…I should…
- a mismatch of values — not living according to yours
- to pursue a passion or purpose
- to be accepted, heard, valued
- to sleep
- to eat well
- to move more
- to slow down
- to self care
- to connect
What happens when your needs are unmet?
Unmet needs cause suffering.
Stress.
An inflammatory biology.
Pain emerges from these conditions.
You don’t need an injury for pain.
Pain and body tissue state are poorly related.
Pain is about you and your life. Same for other symptoms.
You are the one who experiences pain and symptoms.
You feel them in your body, but they are not being generated where you feel them.
Pain is always about the whole person, you, in your lived world.
This means there are many ways you can go about easing pain and symptoms.
Many ways to create the conditions to get better.
By meeting your needs. Your human needs, some of which are basic: sleep, diet, movement, purpose, connection.
Each person has their own beliefs about these and other essentials, including how likely they are to be able to meet them.
This is important to explore and then move to practical skills.
Pain Coaching has been designed specifically with this in mind. To help you understand your experiences, why you do what you do, what habits are holding you back, and how you can move forward from where you are.
It must focus on you, what you want to achieve and how to take steps in that direction.
You are unique.
See you tomorrow — last day!
r.s.