Pain Flare? Try a Movement Distraction

Distraction can often be a helpful response to pain. Charlie Merrill, MSPT and clinical advisor at Lin Health introduces movement as a healthy distraction technique if and when pain flares.

One of the most interesting things about pain and other symptoms, that’s being driven by the brain and nervous system when it's stuck in a state of danger alarm, or when there's a lot of fear, is that it behaves differently from the type of pain that we have when were injured or when our body is damaged. And so distraction and activities that distract us from the fear tend to be really helpful. One of the most common distraction techniques is to focus on your breath and to send yourself messages of safety. But as a physical therapist, I really like to use exercise, or I prefer to call it movement, because exercise presumes that you're doing something athletic. I like to to use movement as a form of distraction to help people very quickly diffuse physical symptoms, and to show themselves that those things aren't dangerous.

And my top tips for this involve looking for things that are fun, that you're excited about, that are novel. Maybe things that your brain and nervous system doesn't recognize as dangerous. That bring you joy, that are out in nature, that inspire wonder, and really are just things that get you excited. That aren't loaded with expectations of some type of goal or some type of, you know, achievement. So, go out and play. And, as you do that, really stay curious about your physical symptoms and notice that they might
change as you get up and actually start to move, as opposed to sitting and resting, which is most of what most of us tend to want to do when we're uncomfortable. So I invite you to go play, get curious aabout your symptoms, and just see what happens.