How do Chronic Pain and Yin Yoga relate? Let’s first look at what pain is and how we end up getting diagnosed with chronic pain.
What is pain?
According to the International Association for the Study of Pain defines pain as “an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with, or resembling that associated with, actual or potential tissue damage.” In medical terms pain often tends to be associated with tissue damage or physical illness. If this is the case and the pain resolves within a certain amount of time, this is called acute pain.
However, pain is very complex and a straightforward diagnosis can’t often be found. Often the origin of a certain pain is hard to identify. This is because both certain organs and muscles create patterns of pain that are not directly easily associable with the site. Moreover, pain is “interpreted” by the nervous system through nerves that act as messangers. This is referred to as Nociception: the detection of harmful stimuli by specialized receptors and nerve endings, and this information that damage has occurred to the body is transmitted to the spinal cord and brain. Often the brain might not associate pain with tissue damage, or it can go on even after the damage has healed. It is therefore important to consier the person as a whole, and we cannot separate the mind from the sensation of pain.
What is Chronic Pain?
Chronic pain is defined as pain that lasts for more than 12 weeks. Sometimes it is hard to stop the pain signals. As stated above, it is impossible to separate the mind from the body in terms of pain, and this is even more true in terms of chronic pain.
It has been found that people are more likely to develop chronic pain during or after periods of stress or unhappiness. Often, in these cases, no scan will give an answer to the question: where does this pain come from?
Other reasons for chronic pain might be autoimmune conditions and other chronic illnesses such as Fibromyalgia. Unfortunately, medicine doesn’t have a definiteve answer yet as of why they manifest or how to cure them. You should always see your doctor and discuss the best course of action in terms of medications. However, there is a lot you can do yourself to manage these conditions.
Chronic Pain and Yin Yoga
So how can yin yoga be of help for our chronic pain? Since pain is directly related to our psychological experience holistic practises are the perfect ally. In particular, practises such as Yin Yoga. This is because these practises involve a certain amount of gentle movement, mindfulness as well as relaxation.
We need to remember that the Yin Yoga practise needs to be gentle. We need to gentle stress the connective tissues, and not overstretch them.
You know yourself and you body better than anyone else. We can find the practises that resonate with us. I believe that Yin incorporates everything we need to manage chronic pain. However, including a good strengthening practice and a dedicated meditation practise is also very important.
You can try the video below an see how you feel afterwards.
If you want to know more on how I can help you find your way through chronic pain visit this.
Would you like to know more about chronic pain? This is one of my favourite articles and this contains great information of what else you can do to help your chronic pain.
Lots of love,
Bea
References:
