January Happenings

Photo: Breckenridge Ski Area Sunrise 11.18.24 @ 7:06 ~

Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.
-Martin Luther King Jr.

Howdy!

January is here and fierce. Staying warm in our -23 mornings is a new testament to cold immersion therapy. The frozen eyelashes and crunchy snow under the boots bring joy. It warms the hearts of long-time locals, reminiscing of similar winters from long ago. Hearty soups, hot yoga, laughter, and cozy fires welcome all to snuggle in and enjoy our season of introspection and renewal.

I am so grateful for this time of year. Breckenridge’s International Snow Sculptures is upon us! This fantastic week expresses the power of the season. Artists work as teams, taking cold blocks of snow and removing everything that it is not. Emerging the beautiful form within. A testament to the power and promise of a new year and the next transformation.

Are you ready to transform and emerge this year?

• WHAT? – Free Yoga? YesYoga for All!
• When? – Fridays 830-930am (Through 3.31.25)
• Where? – South Branch Library, Breckenridge, CO
• Enter the building – on the south corner through the outside stairs under the library. Call if you need assistance finding it. 970-409-9945.
• What to Bring- your yoga mat, open heart, open mind, and any props you like.
• What to Expect – This is a no-pressure, relaxed beginner yoga class. It combines Rolf Movement® and Asanas (yoga poses). The class aims to improve stability, strength, and proprioception (self-awareness).
• Can’t crawl out of your Jammies? ZOOM IN

This question comes across my table in many forms.

What is the one thing I need to do differently to not have pain?

What is the one thing?

The short of it:

Rarely there is one thing.

Pain is complicated. Except for traumatic injury, pain is caused generally from a culmination of many things. To name a few: posture, strength, psychological, environmental, compensatory, history of injuries, medical conditions, physiological, and neurological adaptations.

In other words, yes, it’s all connected. The good news is that working with any one of these components can bring great value to improve pain.

The long of it (abbreviated):

Pain science helps us scratch the surface of our complex pain sensory system. Understanding pain science (even a little) and the connection between the mind and body is helpful when approaching pain management.

A special shout out to the amazing team at Breckenridge Physical Therapy. Many years ago, they first turned me onto Lorimer Mosely and his research on pain. I love how deep the rabbit hole goes!

There is a difference between nocioception and pain. Ooh, a fancy new word for the majority of us who don’t nerd out on anatomy all day.

Nocioception comes from the Latin word nocere, meaning to harm to hurt. Nocioception is part of our sensory nervous system that encodes ‘noxious stimuli.’

Pain is the perception and meaning that our brain interprets. This happens after the brain receives inputs from the nocioceptors.

When nociocpetors receive a noxious stimulus, there is a physiological chain reaction. Touching the hot dutch oven that is cooking your White Bean Chili by accident starts this reaction. It sends signals up your arm to your spinal cord and then to your brain. The signals travel very fast. This speed enables your reflex to pull your hand away. You pull it away before you get too badly burned.

Have you ever noticed how you pull your hand away almost before you realize that it was hot? Your reflex system works hard. It protects you while your brain catches up. Then, it lets you know that, OUCH, that was hot, maybe you should run your finger under cold water. Then you should grab the towel. Then, you can open the lid and taste your delicious chili.

The nocioceptive inputs signals into the brain. They enter the Thalamus on the opposite side of the signal. So if you burned your right finger it will go into your left Thalamus. The Thalamus networks signals to several other regions in your brain. Connecting to the Anterior Cingular Cortex (meaning, belief & attention), the Somatocortex (location in the body, interoception), and the Amygdala (fear memory). These are jut some of the areas it connects with. We must remember we have billions, yes billions of neurons in our brains with trillions of connections.

This neural conversation uses information such as the quantity of signals from the nocioceptors, our attention in the moment, fear, body area, historical information, and mood. Our brain then decides on how much pain and its meaning. AKA: Ouch, I’m scarred for life, or no big deal, let’s get the cornbread and eat!

When we are struggling with persistent pain, the signals are continually being bombarded into our brains. Our bodies in its divine genius, will look for ways and tools to make things more efficient for us. Creating neural feedback loops. As well as making us more sensitive, to protect us from future injury to the area.

Our bodes and brains are concerned with our perceived safety as top priority.

So what do we do about it? We want to experience less pain. What is the one thing I can do differently to be in less pain?

You are already doing a great one thing. Learning about pain. Understanding that our brain is making a choice based off of noicioceptor signals. We learn that sometimes when we sense pain we can take a step back mentally. We can look at the feedback loop and ask ourselves, “is this pain dial set correctly? Is this as bad as I initially thought?”

Sometimes the answer is yes, this hurts like hell.

Other times the answer is not really, now that I think about it more.

In those moments, we realize that our body is just going with the well trained feedback loop of old. Yes, this used to hurt a lot. But in this moment it doesn’t quite hurt as much as I initially thought.

This can be a little disconcerting at first, challenging our brain and its perception. With practice, one can turn it into a game. We can step back and ‘witness’ the pain response. We then can evaluate the ‘alarm.’ Notice if the dial is accurate for the actual experience we are having in the moment.

Curious to learn more?

There are lots of resources to help manage and treat the many variables that are involved in pain.

If you want to dive into books. Here are a couple great starts.

Why Do I Hurt
by Adriaan Louw PT PhD Louw PT PhD 

Pain & the Brain
by Richard Ambron

If you have questions, comments, or flashes of brilliance, please reach out to me. I’m happy to nerd out with you and/or explore how Rolfing® and Rolf Movement® helps manage pain.

Personal Adventures

I hope to see you in the mountains, on the yoga mat, or in my email box. I invite you to stay warm and connected and follow your joy.