Tips for Your Neck Pain

The key to getting rid of your neck pain and staying out of pain is breaking the pain cycle early and often. But what does that even mean? Let’s get into it.

Everyone has experienced pain at one point in their life and I am sure you have to. We often hear how everyone experiences this sensation differently, which is entirely true and is why it can be so complex.

Simply put pain is an alarm system that sends a message to the brain whenever it is ramped up due to insult to the tissue. It tells you to take your hand off that hot stove, dummy. Or it tells you to limp if you have a nail in your foot until you can take it out.

However if pain has been present for quite some time or reoccurs often for you, this can alter your alarm system to be on high alert. This means that even when there is no damage to your neck, your nervous system is sending messages to the brain to indicate pain.

We compare this to an overly sensitive car alarm. You know, one that your shirt brushes up against and it starts yelling at you? This is what happens to you when you have had persistent pain.

The car alarm should only go off when someone is trying to steal it, not walk by it. Just like you should only feel pain when true harm is done.

In order to change the way you feel, we need to recalibrate your alarm system to only go off when someone is trying to steal your car, not when someone walks next to it.

To do this it is important to find positions or movements that make your symptoms feel better, even if just for a few minutes. Once you find it, do it often. This breaks the pain cycle and starts to recalibrate your alarm system back to normal.

Keep in mind this process takes time. If you have been feeling the pain for 5 plus years, give yourself some time. Measure things like how long the exercise breaks the pain cycle for. If it was 5 minutes one week and 10 minutes the next week, that is a huge win!

Here are a couple of things you can try and see how your body responds:

Sphynx Cat Camel

Side-lying Tx Mob

Though this article is addressing neck pain, this concept can be applied to the entire body.

As always leave some comments and let us know what is is that thinker of yours.

If you need some guidance and would like our help you take control of your pain and become stronger than ever click here.