RB127.P493

Includes bibliographical references and index

Foreword by Peter Levine Introduction _ What does it mean to reverse your pain condition? _ Why we need another pain book _ What to expect from this book Chapter One: BE IN YOUR BODY AND BREATHE: The Reign of Pain is Mainly in Your Brain _ What you don't know can hurt you! _ How pain operates: The automatic gate system _ Types of pain _ Good news from the gate _ Recognize how your body and mind are already blocking pain _ Sam _ Specific techniques for closing the gates on pain _ Expose your myths about pain that may block recovery _ Learn about the top strategies for pain relief _ Set goals that lead to fast relief _ Why focusing on your breath is so important _ Diaphragmatic breathing Body Awareness Skill #1: BE in your body and BREATHE -- Your breath holds the key to the mind-body partnership Chapter Two: FEEL: Turn On Your Body's Built-In Pain Regulation System _ Why wait for the magic bullet? _ Map your pain terrain: You can only start where you are _ Find out how bad your pain really is _ Keep a Pain Notebook _ Sally, Part I _ Develop an attitude of openness, curiosity, and neutrality toward all body sensations _ Make sense of your body's sensations _ Sally, Part II _ Rebalance your daily rhythms _ Get your priorities straight! _ Use your body's good sense _ Regulate discomfort through breathing and the felt sense _ Sally, Part III _ Take your pain apart Body Awareness Skill #2: FEEL: Breathe to feel comfort as well as pain Chapter Three: RELAX: Feel the Pleasure Around Pain _ Correct your limiting beliefs about relaxation _ Eric _ Intervene earlier in your pain cycle _ Keep relaxation simple. _ Create relaxation that you actually enjoy _ Develop a relaxation practice that restores mind, body, heart and spirit _ Recognize your body's yes and no responses to relaxation _ Practice pendulation to counter the fight/flight/freeze response Body Awareness Skill #3: RELAX your body, relax your brain, turn off pain Chapter Four: IMAGINE: Recreate Your Reality of Living with Pain _ Imagery taps the 8 senses _ Turn on your brain's creative reality _ How to use structured/guided imagery _ Maria _ Improve your results _ Avoid common errors made with imagery _ Special imagery techniques with pain _ Conflict-Free Imagery _ Circle of Pain Imagery _ Use your imagination to prepare for surgery, other medical interventions, or anxiety-producing events _ Bob _ Meet the pain-free body that is alive and well inside you Body Awareness Skill #4: IMAGINE your Brain's Pain Relief Center and Your Body's Pain Solution Chapter Five: MIND-FULLNESS: Fill your mind with the wisdom of each moment _ The spiritual meaning of pain _ What is mindfulness? _ Mindfulness meditation _ The Power of Now _ The Body Scan _ Be in the Now with your Senses _ Sensory Awareness Training _ Finding Inner Strength _ Meet your Inner Strength _ Practice Lovingkindness Meditation _ Sylvia _ Prayer and remote healing Body Awareness Skill #5: MIND-FULL Meditation: A Radical Awareness for the Self-Treatment of Pain Chapter Six: ENERGIZE: Find the Energy to Heal _ How energy therapies can help with pain relief _ The 3 boosters _ Drink water to get your energy moving _ Balance the energy system by minimizing the danger of too much energy _ Create a positive energy field by correcting reversals _ Energize, don't catastrophize! _ Working with your pain triggers _ The TAT _ The 8 point protocol Body Awareness Skill #6: ENERGIZE yourself to maximize your pain relief Chapter Seven: MOVE: Make the Right Moves for Your Body _ Hannah _ Solving the puzzle of exercise: Rediscover your body's design _ Take a motion break instead of a coffee or tea break _ Prepare for and Recover from Exercise _ Warming up _ Stretching _ Success with your exercise program _ Cool Down. _ Hot and cold therapies. _ Cope with the challenges of exercise with healing touch _ Self-massage _ Acupuncture and acupressure _ Electromagnetic stimulation Body Awareness Skill #7: MOVE: Work with your inner coach to engineer pain-free movement Chapter Eight: PENDULATE: Heal The Trauma-Pain Connection _ Explore what animals teach us about pain and trauma _ Suzanna _ Understand the nervous system's role in pain _ Trauma reactivation and dissociation: The rollercoaster of pain _ Anxiety and fear in the chronic pain cycle _ Michael _ Learn more about primitive fears _ Notice your fear and safety reactions with pain _ Interrupt retraumatizing cycles of pain with Somatic Experiencing _ Pendulate to connect trauma and healing energies _ More practice with pendulation _ Resolve inner conflicts that block new somatic patterns _ Build internal cooperation with the inner table technique. Body Awareness Skill #8: PENDULATE to disconnect pain from past trauma Chapter Nine: LOVE: Embrace The Heart of Your Pain _ Two peas in a pod: Emotional and physical pain _ Crack the emotional code of your pain and suffering _ What has broken your heart? _ LOVE step 1: Explore the language of pain _ Jennifer _ LOVE Step 2: Review the beginning of your heart pain. _ Healing your heart pain _ LOVE Step 3: Breathing through your heart _ Healing suffering _ LOVE Step 4: Loving your body through pain _ What about forgiveness? _ LOVE Step 5: "The Door of Forgiveness Body Awareness Skill #9: LOVE: Clearing emotional and physical pain Chapter Ten: BUILD ON SUCCESS: When You Haven't Got Time for the Pain _ Review _ Where to go from here _ Build your own pain protocol _ Joe, Part I _ Joe, Part II _ Joe, Part III _ Nancy _ Trust your body to teach you out to get out of pain Body Awareness Skill #10: BUILD ON SUCCESS: Keep Learning from your Body Appendix References About the Author Index

Reversing Chronic Pain offers a dynamic framework for joining body and mind to speed the healing of traumatic pain from the body level up. Each chapter presents a body-centered skill set that can be mastered through a broad menu of practice exercises. The resulting interlinked somatic building blocks help readers shift from physical pain to body awareness, and from unstoppable suffering to heartfelt connection and peace. Building on the AIDS cocktail approach that reflects the fact that chronic pain is complex and no one tactic is likely to solve the problem, renowned expert Maggie Phillips presents a 10-1 pain plan comprised of easy strategies based on somatic experience. Even if the reader’s pain is perceived as a “10” at the onset of the program, with 10 being intolerable, the somatic building blocks help shift the pain one point at a time until it gradually diminishes to “1” or even “zero.” Showing how the common professional interventions–medication, physical therapy, acupuncture, biofeedback–may be more harmful than healing, Reversing Chronic Pain stresses self-treatment throughout, involving sufferers in attaining lives not simply endured but actively enjoyed.