This Book Changed My Relationship to Pain

 Relationship to Pain

https://youtu.be/gZdtrY8NuUc

Physical pain is a universal human experience. And for many of us, it’s a constant one. Roughly 20 percent of American adults — some 50 million people — suffer from a form of chronic pain. For some, that means having terrible days from time to time. For others, it means a life of constant suffering. Either way, the depth and scale of pain in our society is a massive problem. But what if much of how we understand pain — and how to treat it — is wrong? Rachel Zoffness is a pain psychologist at the University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine and the author of “The Pain Management Workbook (https://www.newharbinger.com/97816840...

We tend to think of pain as a purely biomechanical phenomenon, a physical sensation rooted solely in the body. But her core argument is that pain is also produced by the mind and deeply influenced by social context. It’s a simple-sounding argument with vast implications not only for how we experience pain but also for how we treat it. She points to numerous underused tools — aside from pills and surgeries — that can help lessen our pain. We discuss how pain serves as “the body’s warning signal”; how our mood, stress levels and social environment can amplify or dial down our pain levels; what phantom limb syndrome says about how the brain “makes pain”; how our emotions and trauma influence our pain levels; the crucial difference between “hurt” and “harm”; why studies on back pain have yielded such bewildering results; how to figure out and improve your personal “pain recipe”; the roots of our chronic pain crisis; how our health care system could be better set up to treat chronic pain; why Zoffness says, “If the brain can change, pain can change”; and more. Mentioned: “Sham Surgery in Orthopedics (https://academic.oup.com/painmedicine...

by Adriaan Louw, Ina Diener, César Fernández-de-las-Peñas and Emilio J. Puentedura Book Recommendations: Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers (https://us.macmillan.com/books/978080...

) by Robert M. Sapolsky The Body Keeps the Score (https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/bo...

) by Bessel van der Kolk Pain (http://cup.columbia.edu/book/pain/978...

) by Patrick Wall Thoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at ezrakleinshow@nytimes.com. You can find transcripts (posted midday) and more episodes of “The Ezra Klein Show” at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast (https://www.nytimes.com/column/ezra-k...

, and you can find Ezra on Twitter @ezraklein. Book recommendations from all our guests are listed at https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-...

(https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-...

. “The Ezra Klein Show” is produced by Emefa Agawu, Annie Galvin, Jeff Geld, Roge Karma and Kristin Lin. Fact-checking by Michelle Harris and Kate Sinclair. Mixing by Sonia Herrero and Isaac Jones. Original music by Isaac Jones. Audience strategy by Shannon Busta. The executive producer of New York Times Opinion Audio is Annie-Rose Strasser. Special thanks to Carole Sabouraud and Kristina Samulewski.

Life doesn't make sense.

 



"I don't know why people expect art to make sense. They accept the fact that life doesn't make sense." - David Lynch

Expect the Unpredictable

 

Expect the Unpredictable

 

Desiderata - Words for Life

Go placidly amid the noise and haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible without surrender
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.

Avoid loud and aggressive persons,
they are vexations to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain and bitter;
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.

Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs;
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals;
and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself.
Especially, do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love;
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment
it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.

You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be,
and whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy.

— Max Ehrmann, 1927

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Rethinking how to achieve your ambitions

 

‍We believe that MS isn’t about giving up on your ambitions. Just rethinking how to achieve them.

- Shift MS

Know It Alls

 

 m

Quotes- Albert Einstein

 

“To lose the appetite for meaning we call thinking and cease to ask unanswerable questions,” Hannah Arendt wrote in her exquisite reckoning with the life of the mind, would be to “lose not only the ability to produce those thought-things that we call works of art but also the capacity to ask all the answerable questions upon which every civilization is founded.”

I am a determinist. As such, I do not believe in free will. 

I claim credit for nothing. Everything is determined, the beginning as well as the end, by forces over which we have no control. It is determined for the insect as well as for the star. Human being, vegetables or cosmic dust, we all dance to an invisible tune, intoned in the distance by a mysterious player.

I am enough of an artist to draw freely from the imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.

- Albert Einstein 

 

“That is the way to learn the most, that when you are doing something with such enjoyment that you don’t notice that the time passes.”

- Albert Einstein 

Mindfulnress and the Monkey Mind

 

The “monkey mind” originates in Chinese folklore and describes that restless state of chaotic thoughts and emotions. 

Neuroscience has traced monkey mind to the brain regions known as the default mode network (DMN).

Buddhist mindfulness has been shown to calm the DMN and reduce stress.

Mindfulness Techniques

 

 

Keys To Mental Health

 

1. Make social connections a priority.

2. Staying active is good for the brain.

3. Keep stress levels in check.

4. EAT A BRAIN-HEALTHY DIET.

5. Don't skimp on sleep.

6. Find Purpose and Meaning in Life.

Viktor Frankl | Man's Search for Meaning

Then I grasped the meaning of the greatest secret that human poetry and human thought and belief have to impart:

The salvation of man is through love and in love.

Viktor Frankl

The Value of Pacing

Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says, "I'll try again tomorrow".   

 - Mary Anne Rademacher

“Day is over, night has come. Today is gone, what’s done is done. Embrace your dreams, through the night. Tomorrow comes with a whole new light.” 

- George Orwell

Cognitive challenges, like M.S. Fog, require strategies to deal with the daily difficulties caused by this condition.

 Realize the value of pacing—carefully sensing and managing your energy levels to avoid crashes.

The desperation to return to normal can be dangerous, especially when combined with cultural norms around pressing on through challenges and post-exertional malaise—severe crashes in which all symptoms worsen after even minor physical or mental exertion.  People try to push themselves back to work and instead “push themselves into a crash”.     

Because mental exertion is physical exertion, carefully ration mental exercise like reading or  brain-training games.

 If you feel low from lack of sleep, stress or being overactive, force yourself to rest—cognitively as well as physically.