129/Breaking The Cycle of Chronic Pain

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In this episode.... Pain is more than just a physical sensation—it’s an intricate experience that impacts both your body and mind. In this episode we'll explore the complex relationship between emotional and physical pain, and learn how unaddressed emotions can manifest as chronic discomfort. Discover practical strategies to reduce pain using neuroplasticity, self-hypnosis, and a deep understanding of the mind-body connection. If you're ready to reclaim your life from chronic pain, this session offers the tools and insights to help you break free.

Chapters

• 0:02 Understanding Pain
• 13:34 Managing Pain and Emotional Healing
• 24:24 Emergency Pain Management Techniques

Transcript

Jen Febel: 0:02

Hello and welcome to the BTG Podcast. I am your Jen Febel, of BTG Wellness and LiveLifeUnbroken. com. BTG stands for Bridge the Gap and it's inspired by my own healing journey. After receiving seven different mental health diagnoses by the age of 19, I quickly realized that there was a massive gap between what I believed and understood in my head and what I truly felt in my heart. A nd no matter how many therapists I went to, I couldn't seem to bridge that gap— until I found the tools and information that I share in my one-on-one private sessions, trainings and right here on this podcast. My goal is to help you begin to bridge that gap by bringing you different topics related to mental, emotional and spiritual well-being and, in case you didn't know, this podcast is recorded live during my bi-monthly virtual healing circles. These are virtual gatherings that are 100% free and no RSVP is required, so you're welcome to come whenever you can and stay as long as you want. Each circle, we open the space with a candle meditation, after which I will share with you my favorite grounding practices and lead you through a circle casting guided meditation and breath work, and lead you through a circle casting guided meditation and breath work, followed by a soul-inspiring gratitude practice. If you are interested in learning more about how you can continue your journey and experience my virtual healing circles in real time, please visit wwwbtgwellnesscom and join my free Circle membership If you like what you hear in today's episode. Please also remember to leave a review and share the love by sharing this episode with your friends, family and social network and, as always, if you have any questions about anything at any time, please feel free to reach out to me through either of my websites, either btgwellnesscom or my coaching website, livelifeunbrokencom, or through email or social media. Enjoy the episode. Welcome to the Virtual Healing Circle with me, jen Fable of btgwellnessandlivelifeunbrokencom, and tonight I'm really excited to talk to you guys about pain.

Jen Febel: 2:34

Pain is something that all of us experience at one time or another, some of us more than others, some of us more than we want, and a lot of us aren't really understanding the mechanisms of pain and how it works in our body. My theory is, if it's something that we have to encounter and live with, sometimes might be good to understand it. So my job tonight is to help you get better acquainted with pain. I'm also going to teach you something called the pain protocol to help you start to break the cycle. So why is this important? This is important because if you're human, you've probably felt pain at some point. Pain is a natural and normal part of the human experience and some of us experience it more than others, but all of us experience it at some point. This is important because understanding the difference between acute pain and chronic pain and how the different mechanisms work in the body can help you understand and navigate this really gross sensation more effectively. And this is important because understanding the connection between your emotions and chronic pain is the key to deeper healing. So what exactly is pain?

Jen Febel: 3:42

Pain is a really complex experience. It's multifaceted and encompasses both sensory and emotional components. Generally, it's described as an unpleasant sensation that has a very strong emotional response linked to it, and it's linked to actual or potential tissue damage. And it's linked to actual or potential tissue damage. The nature of pain is not just a sensory process. It's not just something that we feel through our physical body. It's a very complicated process that involves multiple areas of our nervous system and our emotional processing centers.

Jen Febel: 4:21

Years ago, I worked in animal hospitals. I worked in veterinary hospitals, animal clinics, and pain was a really big topic in animal health. It still is. But back then we were kind of on the cusp For a lot of years. We didn't think animals felt pain and so we didn't really give them pain management. Then we learned that they probably feel pain because they have the same neural circuits as we do, but that pain was probably a better way to handle it because it keeps them quiet. So let's not give them pain medication because then they sit still. What we found over time was that created this whole feedback loop that actually changed the brain and the way it processed pain. Toughing it out and dealing with pain actually changes the brain. Toughing it out and dealing with pain actually changes the brain. Intervening and offering pain support, pain management, helps to allow the organism, allows your body, to actually function. So pain is something that in animals we didn't know much about and even in humans we're still understanding. It's that complex.

Jen Febel: 5:27

There is a sensory aspect to pain, pain where you actually have a physical sensation that's generated by some sort of a harmful thing that happens outside of you so heat, pressure, chemicals. This type of pain is very important because it alerts your body that something's going on. Otherwise, if we didn't have pain, we'd walk around and we would just bleed to death because we wouldn't know that there was a problem. In addition to this physical aspect, there's a very strong psychological and an emotional component to pain. It's influenced by your personal experiences, by your cultural backgrounds, by your psychological state. If you've experienced a lot of fear and anxiety or trauma in your past, it can amplify your emotional response to pain, which can make it feel more intense and overwhelming. When we're dealing with pain, we have to understand that it is a dimensional process and it is very unique in the body. If we believe that the body is perfect, then somehow pain evolved as a perfect mechanism and our job is to learn how to tune into it more effectively.

Jen Febel: 6:27

And there's two different types of pain generally recognized there's acute pain and chronic pain. So acute pain refers to any type of pain that happens suddenly. It's in response to a very specific illness or injury. It serves a very protective function that lets the body know that there's an injury or there's some sort of tissue damage that's potentially happening. The purpose of acute pain is to tell the body hey, I need immediate attention. Pain means pay attention. It prompts you to jump into action, to do things that protect the injured area, to avoid more pressure to go seek out medical treatment. Pain prompts us to do something, so without it we wouldn't do anything something, so without it we wouldn't do anything. Chronic pain, on the other hand, is pain that happens long after we would have expected the acute pain to have disappeared already. Usually, any pain that lasts more than anywhere from three to six months, again depending on the injury. A sprained ankle is going to require less, but like a gunshot wound to the arm, probably a lot more. So chronic pain happens after we would expect all the acute pain to have gone and everything's healed, but the pain is still persisting Now. While acute pain has a very protective purpose it gets your body to do something chronic pain doesn't really have the same function. It's usually more of a sign that something's gone awry in the pain circuits in the body.

Jen Febel: 7:51

Chronic pain can be associated with things like fibromyalgia, chronic back pain, arthritis, neuropathy and migraines. Chronic pain can vary very much in its intensity. It can be a constant or it can be intermittent. It might affect multiple areas of the body or it might affect one area persistently, and it's often accompanied by fatigue and by changes in the mood and decreased quality of life. So when we're managing chronic pain, whereas acute pain requires, you know, put on a cast or put a bandage on the bleeding.

Jen Febel: 8:24

Managing chronic pain requires a multidisciplinary approach. That requires things like meditation as well as medication. It requires physical therapy, but also emotional therapy. It requires changes to our lifestyle, not just in that well, now I need to put like candles in the shower, but also on how I'm showing up in the world. Oftentimes we're so focused on the physical aspects of pain we don't pay attention to the emotional aspects of it.

Jen Febel: 8:56

Now, just as there are two types of pain, there's also different ways to evaluate pain. So you can look at someone's pain threshold. That's the point at which you start to feel pain and become aware that it's a painful sensation. Your pain threshold is influenced by nerve sensitivity and by neurotransmitter activity in your brain. It's the point at which the minimum intensity of a stimulus can be perceived. So if you've ever gone for, like an eye test or a hearing test, that's a threshold type of test where they play different tones and then they see where can you start to hear it? Where can you not? Determining someone's pain threshold requires you to literally keep increasing the pain, small bits at a time, until the person's like ow, that hurts. So that's someone's pain threshold.

Jen Febel: 9:38

Pain tolerance is different. Pain tolerance is the maximum level of pain that a person is willing or able to endure before seeking out relief. So with pain tolerance, they feel it, they're just not doing anything about it. They're able to tolerate the pain. Your pain tolerance they feel it, they're just not doing anything about it. They're able to tolerate the pain. Your pain tolerance is influenced by psychological factors such as your mood, your emotions, your past experiences, your cultural background. Whereas a pain threshold is usually relatively consistent, your pain tolerance will go up and down depending on where you are in life.

Jen Febel: 10:11

Every time there's some sort of a pain signal running in our nervous system, it's changing how our nervous system runs as a result of a process called neuroplasticity. Neuroplasticity is an amazing thing. It basically refers to the brain's remarkable ability to reorganize itself, to form new neural connections all throughout our life. We used to think that you can't teach an old dog new tricks, but it turns out you can. Our brains are pretty elastic. The more we feel pain on an acute level, the more it changes our brain chronically, and that was what they think leads to chronic pain. So when we have a prolonged exposure to pain on an acute level. It sensitizes the neurons in our spinal cord and in our brainstem. It creates pathways that weren't there before. And remember, pain is very complex. When we feel pain, it's a very deep experience for us, not just a physical thing, and often we try to push that emotional aspect away.

Jen Febel: 11:13

When we're looking at pain, we have to make sure that we're understanding that it's not just a physical thing, that our bodies respond holistically to it, and so it needs to be treated that way as well, which is why I want to introduce you to something called the pain protocol, called the pain protocol. The pain protocol is a semi-hypnotic technique. I said the H word. This technique helps with chronic pain. So if there's acute pain, if there's an actual injury or something healing, you got to deal with it. It needs a bandage, it needs medication, it needs a cast, it needs something to allow the body to heal. If, on the other hand, something to allow the body to heal, if, on the other hand, the injury is healed, the damage has been repaired and it's been enough time for the body to have been able to heal, if we're past that six months and we're still experiencing it and it's gone into the land of chronic. That's where this technique can really come in handy.

Jen Febel: 12:07

The pain protocol allows you to acknowledge your emotions without actually having to explore any deeper. Oftentimes we repress the emotion because we didn't want to deal with it the first time. Why the hell would I want to deal with it now, when I also have a headache? So this technique doesn't require you to go very deep. It does require you to persist. It can take anywhere from two all the way up to eight full minutes for the pain to completely disappear, depending on the type of pain, how long you've had it, how strong it is. When you use this technique and you're using it on chronic pain the pain will always go away completely. I've had clients use this on severe migraines that they rated at a 10 out of 10 on the pain scale, migraines that they rated at a 10 out of 10 on the pain scale. That person took seven and a half minutes to get the migraine gone. Now there was still that aura, there's still the sensation, there's still the after effects of it, and to go from 10 out of 10 pain to zero in seven and a half minutes pretty cool, pretty cool. So how do you use the pain protocol.

Jen Febel: 13:11

Step one calibrate your pain, see where you're starting off. Basically, ask yourself on a scale of zero to 10, how bad is this pain, 10 being like the worst pain of my life. Zero being completely pain free, I'm comfortable. You're going to go with whatever number pops up, not with what you think you should be feeling. Again, a lot of judgment often accompanies pain.

Jen Febel: 13:34

Next, you're going to ask yourself the question what emotion am I feeling now? You have to use that very specific linguistic not what am I feeling, but what emotion am I feeling now. It's a very specific linguistic question. Once you ask the question, you're going to name out loud whatever emotion pops up for you. The key thing here is you're not actually going to feel the emotions. You're just going to blurt out whatever popped into your head. It's not going to make any sense. You're going to keep doing that. You're going to keep asking what emotion am I feeling now? And then naming the emotion what emotion am I feeling now? And then naming an emotion what emotion am I feeling now? And then naming an emotion. You're going to keep doing that until the pain goes away completely and drops to a zero out of 10. And it will always go to a zero out of 10.

Jen Febel: 14:25

Some keys to make this work. One make sure you calibrate the pain so you know where you're starting from. Halfway through the technique, if you get curious, you can check in on your pain. Okay, where is it now? If you don't know where you started, you're not going to know if it dropped and then your brain's going to kick in. You're going to get anxious, tell yourself this isn't working and that's going to make the pain worse, because pain has also got a big emotional component Troubleshooting.

Jen Febel: 14:54

Number two make sure you just blurt out whatever emotion pops up for you. Like I said, it won't make sense. This is how it's literally going to sound. So if I were to do this right now, what emotion am I feeling now? Sorrow. What emotion am I feeling now? Hurt? What emotion am I feeling now? Distress? What emotion am I feeling now? Anger? What emotion am I feeling now? Anger? What emotion am I feeling now? Anger? What emotion am I feeling now? What emotion am I feeling now? Anger? What emotion am I feeling now? Anger? What emotion am I feeling now? Joy? What emotion am I feeling now? Sadness? What emotion am I feeling now? Hurt? You literally just keep doing that going as fast as you can until the pain goes away and it always goes away. When you ask and name your emotions out loud and you must make sure you're naming them out loud the pain will always go away.

Jen Febel: 15:41

Troubleshooting number three make sure you're naming actual emotions. If like icky or gross or worthless comes up, those are descriptors, those aren't emotions. You want actual emotions sad, happy. The cool thing is is that the technique just requires you to ask the question over and over again. So if something else comes up, just be like, okay, unconscious mind, give me some emotions instead, and then ask the question again and then just allow an emotion to pop up for you Every once in a while. Check in, recalibrate, see where your pain is, watch it slowly go down and keep going until it is zero. If you stop at one or two because, well, it's better, you're gonna fuck yourself. Don't do that. Pain means pay attention.

Jen Febel: 16:22

This technique allows you to acknowledge an emotional experience that is so deeply pushed down that it won't make sense when it comes up. And when you let that out, magic happens. If you stop partly through the process, you say to your unconscious mind I'm listening, I lied. You basically hang up the phone in the middle of conversation. It's mean Be kind to yourself.

Jen Febel: 16:48

So some key concepts to remember. Remember that pain is multifaceted. It includes a physical component, but a very big emotional and psychological component as well. So if you're dealing with any type of pain in your life, make sure you're getting support on all those levels. Remember that addressing only the physical components of chronic pain doesn't get to the root of the issue. It still doesn't deal with all the repressed emotions that got shoved down at some point and that leads to a very complex cycle that has the power to change the brain in not awesome ways. Cool thing is is your brain has neuroplasticity. It's pliable. So if we can move it in one direction, we can move it in the other. And remember that using the pain protocol helps you shine a spotlight on emotions that you didn't acknowledge. That happened in the middle of life, being lifey, and you didn't have time to sit there and contemplate your navel, and so they got shoved down. It happens, it happens and every once in a while we have to make sure that we acknowledge them. And when we do that we can retrain the brain and find deeper healing.

Jen Febel: 17:51

And, as always, I want to remind you to decide. You want it more than you're afraid of it. I can't tell you how many people I have taught this technique to, who have chronic pain, who refuse to use it because they're afraid of what life would be like if they were actually comfortable. If you're in that boat, please decide. You want it more than you're afraid of it. That's always the decision that will take you to the next step and, as always, if you have any questions about anything from tonight's circle or podcast, please know you can always reach out to me through either my websites, either btgwellnesscom or my coaching website, livelifeunbrokencom, or through email or through social media.

Jen Febel: 18:32

Is there an acute pain protocol like for cramps? Is there an acute pain protocol like for cramps there? So I will tell you that I have used the pain protocol on the acute pain of um, like menstrual cramps, things like that, uh, and it does work. It's just not. There's an acute process happening, so the pain's going to keep coming back, but it certainly helps.

Jen Febel: 18:55

When I so um, I was diagnosed with endometriosis however many years ago, and so some months are wretched and, uh, when I have been stuck and just didn't know what else to do and on the floor crying, I've done the pain protocol and it's gotten me up and walking around, um. So, yes, you can use it. It might take more on the eight minute end of the spectrum. And, yeah, when I and every time I'm feeling any kind of pain, I actually also use this. I had to go for after I had COVID the first time, like the bad version of it. I had to go for arm and leg Doppler where they basically put what they called blood pressure cuffs on all parts of your body, so upper arms, thighs, calves. I don't like my calves being touched and they cramp really easy if you squeeze them and here they're putting a device on it, it's going to keep squeezing it and I was freaking out and so I did the pain protocol and just lay on the table just naming emotions. What emotion am I feeling now? I was like terror, terror, hatred, hatred, and it worked.

Jen Febel: 19:55

So, yes, you can, it does work for acute pain and when you're in an acute process, one if you're bleeding, put something on it. Don't turn to this first. Just medical disclaimer, because you know I am not a doctor, all the things. But once you know that it's being taken care of, it certainly helps. But again, pain you need to make sure you're addressing on the physical layer of reality as well as the emotional. So don't use the pain protocol instead of medication. Yeah, in an acute process, and if you're taking meds and you're like it's not cutting it, then certainly this is a great addition to it. Yeah, awesome, thank you, yeah, my pleasure, my pleasure.

Speaker 2: 20:36

Hi, certainly this is a great addition to it. Yeah, awesome, thank you. Yeah, my pleasure, my pleasure. Hi there, everyone so lovely to see you all. Um, jen, how do you explain some people who exchange one form of pain for another and I speak of self-harm? How does that play into your?

Jen Febel: 20:50

pain theory. So I can speak to this from personal experience as someone who in my past did engage in quite a bit of self harm. So there are lots of scars on my body that I put there and did me in the hospital a bunch of times. And it happens because sometimes the emotional pain so if I have a headache I can take a Tylenol. If I have a broken arm I go to the doctor they'll put it in a cast. If I go to the doctor and I say my heart hurts and they do all the tests, they say we can't help you, but I'm still stuck with this pain.

Jen Febel: 21:23

Sometimes transferring that emotional pain to physical pain at least made it understandable. I couldn't understand the level of emotional pain and I couldn't find relief from it. So it was a transfer. And I'm speaking that's me personally. I can't say that that applies to everyone. But there is you know, you read stuff, you know about stuff other people who kind of deal with this or have dealt with it, I guess, or currently dealing with it, but I'm not dealing with it.

Jen Febel: 21:50

There is an overwhelming amount of psychological and emotional pain and just like an animal will chew off its leg in a trap to get out. That's kind of what self-harm is. It's getting rid of a limb in an attempt to get away from pain. Now you've got the problem of no limb, but at least you're not in the trap. So it's a transference. You're right, it creates one problem from another. Now you've got the problem of no limb, but at least you're not in the trap. So it's a transference. You're right, it creates one problem from another. But when we're caught in a trap, our instinct is to get away from it whatever means possible, and oftentimes we'll chew ourselves out, if that makes any sense, yeah.

Speaker 2: 22:33

So could you use this hypnosis therapy to bring you away from that? And I and I say this because I know someone personally in my life, um, whom I love very, very much uh tends to dabble in that when they are overwhelmed with, like you said, the emotional aspect of pain, and it makes sense to to um, to transfer that pain and they will acknowledge. You know, I feel this and I feel like I want to sell harm. So it's recognizing that there's that emotional. So where can we use this theory to sort of change that emotional pain and then also stay healthy enough to be away from that transfer of pain?

Jen Febel: 23:14

So if someone's gotten to the point where the psychological and emotional pain is so high that they're willing to chew off their own leg metaphorically they're going to need more than the pain protocol. Yes, they can use the pain protocol. Yes, you can teach it to them. Highly doubtful that they're going to use it or stick with it, because you don't want to contemplate your navel and do a meditative process when your foot's stuck in a trap. So there's going to need to be deeper work there. That's where something like what I do in my one-on-one so we need to go deep. Some sort of emotional coaching and support would be required. That would require that person to also want it and need it.

Jen Febel: 23:54

Sometimes psychological pain also retrains the brain and so it becomes a normal, depending on how long we've lived with it. So sometimes we don't know, we don't know, we don't even realize that this is pain and we just think it's part of who we are. So there has to be a recognition and a desire to change and there has to be some deep emotional healing. That happens In the meantime if they find themselves in crisis, certainly, but it's kind of like it's again too many cop shows lately If someone gets a gunshot wound to the arm. I'm going to take a cloth, I'm going to put it over to stop the bleeding, but that's not where I stop the treatment. Okay, so yes, pain protocol certainly it's a great way to slow down the bleeding, but get your ass to a hospital. You've got shot in the arm. So if someone's at that level of pain, they need more than this technique can do, and this technique can at least slow down the bleeding to get them to the hospital of their choice.

Jen Febel: 24:49

Okay, thank you for that. My pleasure, my pleasure, great question. Thank you again for joining me for this episode of the BTG podcast, which stands for Bridge the Gap with me, jen Fable. Remember, if you want to experience my virtual healing circles in real time, visit wwwbtgwellnesscom, slash circle and, of course, if you have any questions at any time, please know you're always welcome to reach out to me through social media or through my websites at btgwellnesscom or through my coaching website, livelifeunbrokencom. Thanks again and I'll see you next time.