Brajesh Singh's Blog

You can’t always do it alone

Fellow pain sufferers, here are some tips that could be helpful to you.

You can’t always do it alone. Sometimes you need help even when you are an expert.
I healed myself from chronic back pain five years ago, and I was sure I had mastered Diversion Pain Syndrome (DPS). I coach others so I must be an expert right? Not quite. Earlier this year, I tore my calf muscle playing pickle-ball. It was eight weeks months of pain and hobbling around and physical therapy. But after I got better, I did a jump and felt a stab of pain. “I must have pushed myself too early and re-injured myself,” I told myself. The physical therapists told me to slow down. But this time, the pain wouldn’t go away. Another two months passed and I just wasn’t getting better. And the pain was moving to my knees. I was sure I was connecting to all my emotions, what was wrong?

I finally went to a different physical therapist, and she looked at me and said “You seem to be a person who’s in his head?” I said “Yes, I am”. I knew I found the right person. (By the way her name is Nima Zaal and she practices in Michigan). She did a thorough examination, asking me to stretch and do several different movements. She said if I was injured I wouldn’t be able to do those movements. My injury had healed and I could start loading it and increasing activity to build back the muscle, despite the pain I was feeling. With her help over the next several weeks, I came back to full strength and the pain is gone. What mistake had I made? I didn’t believe I was healed. Without her help and expertise I would still be in pain.

There are really two steps to healing.
1 — Belief that there is nothing structurally wrong.
2 — Acknowledging your emotions and not giving them any meaning.

It was a lesson to me that no matter how well I know DPS, I may still need help.
If you’re not getting better, seek more experts, ask for help, we’re here to help you.
It reminds of the quote by Ram Dass : “We’re all just walking each other home.”

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Inappropriate Rage and Chronic Pain

So, it might too simple.

What if your chronic pain can be healed by acknowledging inappropriate rage?

Here is a real life example of what is “inappropriate rage”.

A client came to me and said he has been having foot pain for the last six months. He’s seen foot doctors, neurologists, blood specialists and everything checks out fine. The only thing that they see is a little inflammation in the tissue and bones. But the foot hurts like hell and he can only walk about a 100 feet at a time.

A little background about the client, he’s former airline employee, and he can travel for free on any open flight. He loves to travel impromptu to destinations all over the world.

I asked him what was going on in his life six months ago. Without hesitation he said, “My dad turned 91 and he’s been admitted to hospice.”

So what happened? I asked. “Well, I stayed home to be with him and my mom.” he replied.

“How did that make you feel?” I asked. He told me he had to change his lifestyle because of this event.

After about ten minutes of exploring this, I asked “There must be some inappropriate rage towards your dad?”

He was quiet and looked down, without replying. He’s a religous person and this seemed like a difficult question for him.

About a month later he called me and said, “Hey, my foot pain is gone. It’s completely normal. I can walk as much as I want! We just did the funeral services for my dad. Thanks for your support.”

Was it me that helped him? I’d like to believe so, because I see this over and over again.

Be compassionate to yourself and allow yourself to have inappropriate rage. Go back to when your pain began and review what was going on in your life. And what’s going on in your life right now? It’s not the rage you know about that’s keeping you in pain.

It’s the inappropriate one that you are holding back that’s keeping you in pain. Just allow it and you’ll heal rapidly.

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Articles by Major News Outlets In Support of the Mind Body Connection for Chronic Conditions

Here are some wonderful articles by major news outlets like the BBC, New York Times, Washington Post and Psychology Today indicating how stress and tension and emotions can impact our health. I help people get better using these scientific methods. Learn about me and my method here.

Day 1: How Are You, Really?The disabled doctors not believed by their colleaguesHow anger can be put to good useBetter Mental Health May Not Mean Exactly What You Think It DoesWhy It Helps to Put Your Feelings Into WordsThe Devastating Ways Depression and Anxiety Impact the BodyThe Quiet Scientific Revolution That May Solve Chronic PainPerspective | Chronic pain is surprisingly treatable - when patients focus on the brainThere's a Name for the Blah You're Feeling: It's Called LanguishingA New Approach to Train the Brain to Treat Chronic PainHypochrondiacs: Why it's not always just in the mind[image error]

Thinking Fast and Slow & Chronic Pain

How to Heal Yourself From Chronic Pain

I healed myself using the Zero Pain Now program almost five years ago after suffering eight years of back pain, and I’ve been pain free ever since. I recently read a book called “Thinking Fast and Slow” by Nobel prize winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman. Here are some tips for you on how Zero Pain Now works and how you can heal yourself.

The author of the book divides our mind into two thinking systems, system1 (fast) and system2 (slow). System1 is intuitive, emotional and automatic. You cannot turn it off. For example when you see these words “banana vomit” you can’t help with feel visceral feelings and also make up a story about the words. Pause for a moment after reading these two words and let system1 impact you. What story did you make?

System2 is slow and lazy. It generally agrees with system1. It does not like to make effort. However, system2 makes the FINAL decision. For example, consider this problem :

A baseball bat and a ball cost $1.10 together, and the bat costs $1.00 more than the ball, how much does the ball cost?

If you trust your system1, and your system2 is lazy, you will probably get the wrong answer. I won’t post the answer here, but come up with your own answer to this easy problem, then google this question and you’ll find if you got the correct answer.

The workings of system1 are also unconscious. We don’t know how system1 comes up with the answers (that’s probably why its called intuition).

Here are some quotes from the author that are powerful to understanding pain:

1 — “You think with your body, not only with your brain.”

2 — “The notion that we have limited access to the workings of our minds is difficult to accept because naturally, it is alien to our experience, but it is true: you know far less about yourself than you feel you do.”

3 — “System1 believes anything and then system2 decides whether to unbelieve it.”

How do we use all this to end our pain?

It’s simple. Our system1 is telling our system2 there is a dangerous emotion. And our system2 is lazy and buys into it, diverting our attention from this emotion to pain and other symptoms.

The Zero Pain Now process focuses on sensations on the body to label emotions (generated by system1) and then acknowledges them (noticed by system2) and the pain goes away.

It’s as simple as that. We must get our system2 to check what system1 is presenting, and acknowledge it, instead of blindly buying into it. Because remember, system2 makes the final decision. Call this compassion as Matthew frequently reminds us.

Once you build this into a habit, you’ll stay pain free.
I hope this short writeup is helpful you becoming pain-free.

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Emotions and Chronic Pain

Can you overcome this illusion?

Do you suffer from emotional pain or physical pain? Read on.

In the above illusion, if you look at just the horizontal lines, the line on top appears to be longer than the line at the bottom. Agree? However, if you measure them (go ahead use a ruler to measure them if you like) you will realize that they are the same length.

While that’s surprising, that’s not the most surprising thing. What’s even more surprising is, that now you know, you still can’t change the illusion! Even when you know, the line on top still looks longer. There is nothing you can do about it! You could look at it for years, and it will still fool you, even though you know better. What’s this got to do with emotional or chronic pain?

Shown in many psychological studies, noticing and acknowledging your emotions dissipates them.

So the solution to your emotion pain is simple, just realize that you are feeling your emotions, but you are safe.

It’s like the puzzle. Your emotions want to keep you safe, so sometimes they go into overdrive, flooding your amydala and overwhelming you with emotional or physical pain. Unless there is a lion around, you are safe, you are just feeling your emotions. It’s an illusion. You are safe. Just ratioanlize that you are safe, notice the emotions and they will dissipate. It’s that easy. And the illusion is powerful, so practice it everyday. Just like the two lines, you will never get over the illusion, only rational thought will get you out of the cycle.

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Choice is Everything to Stop Chronic Pain

Is perfectionism good? Is anger good? Is being controlling good? Is being hard on yourself good? Is being compulsive good? Is being dependable good?

The answer is it depends. There are times when any of the traits above are useful. There are times when any of these traits are not useful. Can you think of when anger might be helpful? Can you think of when people pleasing might be helpful?

The secret is choice. We should consciously choose when we want to take on a specific character trait.

When people are in chronic pain, they are unaware of their character traits and they are acting on impulses, without consciously choosing.

To make a conscious choice you must allow yourself to feel how you feel being that character. And only after that, you can consciously choose if this is the right moment to be that character.

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I’m Not the Only One (with Chronic Pain)

This is a poem I wrote to help you heal yourself:

For eight years I was in pain,
Each day felt like nonstop rain,
I could not go out to play,
Everyday was like a cloudy day.

In my heart I wanted to dance,
Enjoy life and take a chance,
A step or two of salsa I would take,
But in a moment or two my back would break.

Crumpled on the floor like a collapsed cake,
I wondered what injury to my spine did I make?
The doctor looked up and shrugged his shoulder,
This is what happens when you get older.

Man was designed to live till forty,
Things go downhill when you pass thirty,
But didn’t the Bible say three score and ten?
Like Noah and Moses and Mary and Ben?

Why was this only happening to me?
While much older people were running and free,
Even my mother carried my suitcase into the train,
While I was buckled up, my muscles in a sprain.

Why don’t you try yoga, physical therapy and meditation,
Go swimming, do mindfulness and take medication,
There’s cortizone, oxycontin, vicodin, and diclofenac,
A pill for everything to take out the smack.

Then you can just walk around feeling like a zombie,
Everyone will think you’re a little bit wonky,
And when you start coming back out into the light,
Pharma will prescribe more to put you back out of sight.

The physical exercises sometimes take away the pain,
But in a few hours or the next day, it’s back again,
Why is it that out of 100 people with no pain,
2 out of 3 have the same defects in their spine like mine?

Really? That statistic is a little insane!
Maybe it hits the truth close to the grain,
What if the problem is not in the body…?
What if the problem is in the brain…?

Say what? Are you telling me that I’m crazy?
That I’m going to start spitting out rap like Jay Z?
I used to be perfectly fine way back in time,
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with my mind!

Yes that’s exactly the point,
As a five-year-old you were fine,
The only thing that’s changed between now and then,
Is that you’ve adulted your mind again and again.

Now I hear you say:
This is right and this is wrong,
Things should be this way,
And things should be that way,
And only then will I feel safe.

And you hold your views in your grip with might,
Hold on to being completely and utterly right,
And then you wonder why your body is so tight,
And you feel you’re constantly in a fight.

Drop the adult, drop the wo/man,
Drop your thoughts, drop the game plan,
See the world with your child like eyes,
Feel the feelings that once made you alive.

Be the child that fears and rages,
Be the child that cries and laughs,
Be the child that flows in the moment,
And leaves transient feelings behind for the ages.

I found that child inside my mind,
He was there all along, just confined,
I let him out and set his wild side free,
he laughed and sang and tapped with me,

Now I can swim and now I can dance,
Enjoy some salsa and even some romance,
My pain is gone and I’m no longer in a trance,
I stand firm on this earth and I take my stance.

Sunny day or rainy day,
I’m out there ready to play,
I open my mouth and drink in the rain,
Splash in the mud and chase the trains.

My spine is fine, there’s nothing out of line,
Its defects were just a normal sign of aging,
Moses lived till one hundred and twenty,
And Noah past nine hundred and nine.

Can I do this, I hear you ask?
It’s time to be free and take off the mask,
Yes you can do this, and I’ve seen many.
End their pain and dance a jenny.

It’s time to be free,
Live your life filled with glee,
You can have fun under the sun,
And the reason I know this is, because,
I’m not the only one.

with love,
Brajesh

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Beauty In Anger (vs Chronic Pain)

Do you think there is beauty in anger?

How do you deal with anger in your life?

Have you noticed almost every movie scene has a scene where the hero is angry?

Have you seen a haka before a rugby game? If not, check out this haka short video.

Leave me your comments about this subject…

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Dog chasing tail

Does Trying To Solve Your Chronic Pain Feel Like You’re A Dog Chasing Its’ Tail?

I want to help you heal yourself from chronic pain and for this I’m going to share a metaphor and also the cause for chronic pain so that you can use this information to help you heal yourself.

So one day a dog went to see a psychologist and he said “Hey doc I have this problem that I just can’t seem to solve the harder I try the worse it gets. I’ve tried all these ingenious ways to solve it but the problem just seems to get even more complicated. Can you help me.”

The doctor said “Sure can you do the problem now?”

And the dog said “Of course watch!” And the dog started running around and chasing his tail and the doctor smiled and he said “Oh we get this a lot it’s called Tailititis, you’re chasing your tail.”

The dog said “What really? I’m chasing my tail? Oh my god, is it really that simple? Wow you’re right, I’m just chasing my tail I can’t believe it, I’m so embarrassed, I’ve been doing this for years. Wow I feel so much better. I’m just gonna stop chasing my tail. Thanks a lot doc, I get it, see ya!”

The next day another dog came to see the doctor and he said “Doc I have this problem, the harder I try to solve it, the worse the problem gets…”

The doctor said “Can you do the problem right now?”

And the dog said “Sure,” and he started chasing his tail.

The doctor smiled and he said “Hey we see this all the time it’s called Tailititis. You’re just chasing your tail.”

The dog looks at the doctor and he goes “Wow really that’s it, it’s as easy as that, I’m just chasing my tail? Wow it’s such a pain. Doc you’re right…but doc…how do I catch it?”

Can you see the difference between the two dogs, which dog is going to end up healing themselves and which dog, even though he understands the situation is probably going to make things worse?

Chronic pain is the same thing. The cause of chronic pain is our monkey mind, generating thousands of thoughts per second, generating a lot of stress and tension, and leading to physical pain.

The solution is also as simple, to recognize that we all have a monkey mind, that the job of the mind is to think, and the solution is to let it be, there is no need to chase those thoughts, just let them be.

While it sounds easy, it’s not always easy for everyone. You knew how to do this when you were five years old. But in adulthood, we have a lot more thoughts, and they seem to fill our every moment, but the secret is to know you we be a five year old at any time, just allow the thoughts and know that you are just “feeling your thinking” and that this is completely normal. Everyone is just feeling their thinking.

And if you need more help, just reach out to me at https://zeropa.in and I can help you with a program to heal yourself from chronic pain in 28 days or less, with a 97% success rate.

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Your Mind Is Not Your Friend (when it comes to chronic pain)

Your mind is not your friend. Your heart is. Trust your heart, turn off your mind, let go, and you can be pain free in a matter of days. This is not a thinking process and clearly you are a thinker. The more you think, the harder it will be.

Be a cat or a dog. They don’t hold on to anything, they are happy, sad, angry, anxious, excited, fearful in a matter of minutes. They live with their hearts, and they live safe healthy lives. Lucky for them, they don’t have an advanced mind.

We do. It’s our strength and our liability. In summary, our mind should be slave to our heart, but for people like me and you that repress, we make our heart slave to our mind, and imprison ourselves in pain. All this is said with love.

to you.

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