Well friends neuroplasticity has quite a lot to do with your pain! If you’ve been reading my previous posts you may know that I have had chronic left hip pain since 2008. It got so bad that I could no longer run. I had to quit the softball team I was on and couldn’t do any of my normal activities that would aggravate it. You can read more fun details about it here.

Hip Pain Mindset

After years and years AND YEARS of PT, doctors appointments, even hip surgery! And then more PT…. acupuncture, dry needling, massage, chiropractics, diet changes…. I started realizing that I have tried everything and spent tons of money trying to fix my hip pain. Let’s not even get into the emotional anguish I felt… as I couldn’t workout or do my normal things that made my depression better, made me feel alive, fit, confident, and energized. I spent years feeling sorry for myself. I felt so bummed that I couldn’t be like other people working out, playing sports, going for a simple jog. Gosh I felt like my life was over.

So, being desperate for answers I decided to try something that I hadn’t before. This brought me to the more spiritual and emotional realm. It seemed like that was the only avenue I had yet to explore. I was desperate and not going to give up. I’ve gone to a few different energy healers and to my surprise I loved the sessions, but the pain still bothered me 24/7.

I came across a youtube video explaining that our thoughts affect our pain on a deep level. This concept used to bother me because it reminded me of people invalidating what I was going through, the ole, “it’s all in your head” song and dance. But I learned it’s much deeper than that.

What Is Neuroplasticity?

If you’ve never heard of Neuroplasticity before here is a definition:

“Neuroplasticity refers to the brain’s ability to change by creating new neural pathways and eliminating neural pathways that are no longer needed, such as neural pathways devoted to chronic pain.”

Neuroplasticity’s role in pain management really clicked for me. If we find ourselves attaching a sob story to our chronic pain then guess what… that’s not going to make it better. If we rewire our thoughts we literally rewire our brain with Neuroplasticity.

How Changing My Thoughts Has Helped My Chronic Pain

I became more aware of the thoughts and feelings that arose when my hip hurt (which was 24/7 but sometimes it was more noticeable than others). I became aware of the story I was telling myself and the negative spiral that ensued. This story, I had built up in my mind for 10 years at that point. It was me feeling depressed and a bit sorry for myself…to be honest. Like woe is me, I can’t do the activities that I used to love and I can’t be as fit, or energetic, or happy as I want to be. I’d be so jealous when I’d see people going for a jog or playing sports etc… I don’t need to go into all the detail of that sad negative spiral, and frankly who has the time!? Haha

What I did was rather than go down that sad train of thought, I allowed myself to accept the pain. Accept it and do my best to not judge it. One thing a therapist taught me was to go into and allow yourself to fully feel the pain. When in pain, we will do anything to try to get rid of it or any feelings of discomfort. This is a big part of what makes our pain worse and causes further problems in our lives.

When the answers actually lie within the pain.

It’s the same as with any type of emotional distress, we must go inside the feelings rather than push them away. There’s no need to feel like it’s the end of the world because we’re going through pain or distress. If we allow ourselves to accept, feel, and not judge the feelings only then can we process and heal them.

Two Years Into Changing My Mindset

Fast forward about a year or two since learning about this pain management. I cannot even believe I’m typing this now but there are days when I don’t think about hip pain! That was unheard of two short years ago. I’ve changed my focus to be less of a victim mentality and more about being grateful for everything I can do. I then found workouts I can do that don’t kill my hip, and believe it or not, staying active makes my hip less painful! The thing that I was so sad that I couldn’t do anymore is actually the thing I need to do to not be in constant pain. But I can’t go balls to the wall crazy and do everything I used to do (but I do plan on working my way up to that [minus the balls to the wall]).

Fun Fact:

For some chronic pain, as long as it doesn’t cause further damage and is okay with your doctor you need to stay active. Especially with back pain. I sure wish I knew that when I had a bulged disc in my neck that went misdiagnosed for 9 months…😅

So Far

This all brings me to today. I have been focusing a lot on improving my chronic migraines. I’ve made a lot of progress with the pain management clinic but I still am suffering, I’m not going to lie. I started integrating Internal Family Systems Therapy along with my migraines which has been great so far. My therapist guides me through a more mindful approach to feeling into the pain and learning what lies underneath it from a deep subconscious level. We are just getting started with it but it made me realize wait a minute……. Isn’t this what I did for my hip pain?? I changed my relationship with the pain, and wouldn’t you know it, over time it improved?! I hadn’t thought to do this with my migraines.

I’ve only begun to do this with my chronic, debilitating migraines but I am feeling hopeful. If it worked for my hip pain that wasn’t cured by surgery (or anything else I tried), then I know it’ll help with migraines.

Here are some helpful and fun ways to improve your neuroplasticity!