Biopsychosocial, the importance of it ALL!

Got to love a spiral! This picture was taken when I was 8 months pregnant with Eira, I climbed up a pretty tall lighthouse to see the view with people around me looking a little concerned.

So spirals, I see them as a mental and physical symbol. Sometimes we spiral up and sometimes we spiral down, it's pretty healthy to move up and down these stairs but sometimes with physical pain it can be pretty tough to spiral on up. Mindset and our social settings can be a huge help.

I’m in the middle of another course, this time on the pelvis with a PT and physiotherapist. It’s actually my first ever self-paced online course, which I was hesitant about because I worried I wouldn’t learn as much as I would in a group setting. I’m happy to say I was wrong about that although it is taking me twice as long because I keep replaying videos as there’s so much valuable information to absorb. I was excited to learn about a study on labral tears (Jacobs et al., 2017). The researchers assessed 64 patients scheduled for surgery, examining tear severity, pain levels, and pre-operative symptoms. Surprisingly, symptom severity correlated more strongly with mental health status than with the size of the labral tear or the degree of femoroacetabular impingement (FAI).

This highlights the importance of mindset, emotional wellbeing, and social support when working with pain.

Yoga Therapy supports both the physical issues and the person experiencing the pain. While it’s valuable to understand where something hurts and the why biomechanically, sometimes broadening the lens, becoming more aware of how we move, what we engage with, and how we relate to our experience means that we can find ways on and off the mat for meaningful and lasting change.

I'm pretty sure if someone had told me to be positive and relaxed when in pain (thinking about labour) I would have punched them in the face, it takes a certain amount of practice to tune into your nervous system, understand how it responds and what it responds to to bring you into the present moment and not allow the pain to take over. You can think of your nervous system as having a mind of it's own, I often like to think of the nervous system, the body and consciousness as three separate beings. I'm pretty sure they only met occasionally when I was younger but they are in the midst of becoming great friends. I wonder if your body, nervous system and consciousness have met yet and if so, how well do they know each other?

So let's also talk about the social element, maybe one of the most important medicines we don't talk about. Who do you spend your time with and what do you spend your time doing and chatting about? I'm very lucky to be surrounded by very giggly supportive women (and some men) most of the time as I teach yoga, where you work and who you work with can have a big effect as can your hobbies and of course homelife. This could be a whole blog in itself so let me just finish by saying that curiosity, creativity, compassion and connection with a little bit of courage can go a long way.