Melting Away Chronic Pain - 4 Simple Steps

In this week's episode of Your Best Life, Karl interviews international fitness presenter Sue Hitzmann, who has made it her life's mission to conquer pain. Sue is a former hands-on therapist, and during the show explains what the stress reflex is, how to identify pre-pain signals, and steps to breaking the pain cycle.

Main Questions Asked:

• What is the stress reflex??
• What do we do to break the pain cycle?

Key Lessons Learned:

• Many of us are stuck in the fight or flight response and living in fear on a daily basis.
• We are aware of when it's time to recharge our phones or reboot our laptops, but are less aware of when it is time to reboot ourselves.
• We are taught that pain is something to push through and is a badge of honor.
• Will power is limited and not effective over any period of time. The key is conditioning habits to have long term results.

The Stress Reflex

• A stress reflex is the autopilot of our body that supports, protects, and stabilizes us involuntarily.
• The nervous system manages stress and repair, which is how the body manages homeostasis.
• Once your body gets into a state of stress, it can't go back to a balanced state and 'down regulation.'
• Most of us are so overworked and stressed that it alters the way our body takes in information.

Pre-Pain Signals

• It is common for us to wait for there to be a problem before we find a solution.
• The connective tissue system is a fluid based matrix.
• Daily living causes cellular dehydration, and when this happens, we get symptoms that cause us physical and emotional stress.

Breaking the Pain Cycle

• To break the pain cycle, you need to change your behaviors.
• Even if you aren't sure what caused your pain, the origin of most pain issues is the same.
• Once pain becomes chronic, there is an issue in your connective tissues.

The 4 R's of MELT

• MELT is light touch therapeutic intervention that gives you time to adapt and ease compression into the tissue in order to restore fascia elasticity.

Reconnect

• These are assessment techniques and ways for us to learn how to identify where accumulate stress is.
• Learn whether you are at a baseline or out of balance.
• When you recognize where the stuck stress is living, you can help to get your autopilot to rebalance.

Rebalance

• This helps quiet the stress reflex and get the nervous system back on track to establish core control, balance, and identifying where the center of gravity is neurologically.

Rehydrate

• When we have a lot of pain and are stressed, our tissue becomes stiff and loses its ability to morph, adapt, and return to an ideal shape.
• This leaves your joints susceptible to compression and your muscles susceptible to increase of tension, which can strain tendons, ligaments, and the muscle.

Release

• This is about releasing the primary spaces of the neck, back, hands, feet, and spine.
• We must help our nervous system establish balance on a daily basis and not wait for the nervous system to alert us that there is something wrong.

Sue's Tips

• Sip water frequently daily rather than guzzling it.
• Sleep in a dark room or use an eye mask.

Thank you for listening!

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Links to Resources Mentioned

The Melt Method
The Melt Method (book)