Feelings of Danger in Me Increases Chronic Pain

Pain increases with thoughts of anxiety and fear

Decrease your pain by reducing anxiety or fear.

I know. Easier said than done. Find a technique that works for you like meditation/mindfulness, SIMs & DIMs process, yoga, breath work, body scans, humor, friendships and hobbies.

You will need to pay attention to your thoughts daily so that when something big comes up, you understand how to reduce the fear/anxiety you feel. You know how you do not expect bulging muscles to show up after one workout session? It would be nice, but the reality is your body does not work that way.

Managing your thoughts brings great rewards

Get in the habit of listening to what you think and what you say about your body and your pain.

“What comes out of your mouth determines your reality.” A Complaint Free World

Choose to be your own creator

Choose now to be the creator of how you feel about your pain, body and health. One of the best tools I have found when working with my thoughts is David Butler and Lorimer Moseley’s Safety In Me (SIMs) and Danger in Me (DIMs) process adapted from The Explain Pain Handbook.

“We will experience pain when our credible evidence of danger related to our body is greater than our credible evidence of safety related to our body.” (Mosely and Butler)

This technique quickly teaches you how to pay attention to all the things that make you feel fear, anxiety or danger in you and move these to feelings of safety in you. The great thing is this is easy to learn.

I had been using the technique for awhile when I was notified that my neurologist quit and I was assigned a new one within the clinic. My initial reaction was, “Oh no. Crap! I had no say in this!”

I talk out loud to myself, so I was able to hear the panic in my voice and my thoughts. Because I had the experience of working with moving DIMs to SIMs before this event, I was able to change quickly change my thoughts. My whole goal was to feel safe with a new neurologist and not raise my anxiety.

DIMs and SIMs Process

How could I stop being frightened in this situation and feel good about this change or at least OK?

Danger In Me (DIMs)	Change Starting	Safety In Me (SIMs)
Oh crap!!! My neurologist quit!!!!!	No change.
A new neuro was assigned to me!!!!	No change.
I’ll look him up on the Internet.	A smidge of change towards a SIM.	He had solid credentials.
I didn’t choose him!	I began to see the possibility of this might be OK.	He’s younger than my old neuro. Maybe he will have more current information on Trigeminal Neuralgia.
I didn’t choose him!	I saw this was a control issue & my anxiety calmed down.	Release control Gail.
		My old neuro was obviously ready to leave and I had no control of that.
	I was now looking forward to my appointment.	The timing is perfect because I have some questions for him about new research I saw.

Practice with something small to begin with. Stick with it and you will be surprised how you automatically think about moving your thoughts to Safety In Me!

Hugs!

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Gail Sinclair, MHt, CNC is a hypnotherapist who helps those living with chronic pain go from discomfort to thriving by using hypnosis, pain management tools and resources.

 She is a Master Hypnotherapist, Nutritional Consultant, and a Reiki Master Teacher. She has over 20 years in healing work and is an international award-winning speaker.

 Gail lives in Portland, OR with her delightful husband, son, and cat. She can be found cooking, knitting, writing, and figuring out new ways to thrive with Trigeminal, and Occipital Neuralgia.

You can reach her gailthriveswithchronicpain@gmail.com.