Hypervigilance and perfectionism have a strong correlation to whether or not you might present with unexplained or persistent pain. In fact these tendencies enhance the fear pain cycle and increase your chances of being in pain because they contribute to sensitization of your nervous system.
The reason we develop these tendencies is to try and make ourselves feel safe. Often these acts of hypervigilance stem from feelings of a lack of safety earlier on in life.
Yet the act of being overly attentive to details, the need to get things just right, being too structured in your day to day activities, leads to an increase in tension and amps your nervous system’s fear response leading to more pain.
If this is happening for you, and you have unexplained persistent and chronic pain, there is lots that you can do to slowly break the fear-pain cycle and start to show your brain and nervous system that you are safe.
In today’s stressful world, we all need to incorporate practices that “ready” our nervous system towards safety. The easiest practice you can start with is the Stanley Rosenberg Basic Exercise. This unassuming practice, which takes literally 4-5 minutes tops, switches on your nervous system to support a ventral vagal response (towards ease) where healing can occur.
Secondly, start to practice Somatic Tracking to learn not to fear the pain that is showing up. Somatic Tracking is the Pain Reprocessing Therapy Technique that teaches your brain how to interpret all signals coming from the body as safe, not threats.
You can start to explore Somatic Tracking using this link.
The third step is to engage in conscious Somatic practices that slow you down, calm your mind and clear accumulated tension from your body. The best and most efficient way to do this is using pandiculation because it neutralizes stuck stress and trauma held in the body.
You can learn pandiculation with the Arch and Flatten practice here. This seemingly simple practice, when done correctly with your brain being fully present, has the power to create enormous shifts in your body.
Interested to learn more? We have a life changing program called Mind-Body Blueprint: A Roadmap to Somatic Embodiment that will help you learn how to release energetic blocks & pain, find more ease, peace and joy in your life by learning how to use simple practices that speak the language of your nervous system.
We are here to help and want to share what we know with you. Click here to learn more about how we can help.
Thanks for reading.