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Seven strategies to train the brain and heal central pain · Cultural Wars | America Out Loud News

0:46
Once again, hello, this is Dr.
0:48
Steve LeTulup.
0:49
Thanks for joining me on Unity Without Compromise on the Great America Outloud Talk Radio Network.
0:56
Well, if you've been with me for the past several weeks, and I hope you have, I have been discussing a lot of things with regard to central pain.
1:04
Today I am concluding this series as I talk about seven strategies to train the brain and thereby heal your central pain.
1:14
In the past few weeks, I have discussed multiple central pain syndromes, including fibromyalgia, irritable bile syndrome, migraine headaches, complex regional regional pain syndrome, and more.
1:29
And I defined for you, hopefully in a meaningful way and explained what I mean by the term central pain.
1:38
I described limbic inflammation and called it the missing link in central pain theory.
1:44
It was the information we just seem to be lacking to understand what's going on.
1:49
And you have to understand it if you want to know how to heal it.
1:53
I described central augmentation, what that actually means, how it happens, and I described the syndromes and explained how they develop, how they are learned and why they persist as physical pain.
2:10
Well, this pain, if you recall, begins with faulty perception, and perception is the first step in the central pain pathway.
2:19
That's just the opposite of the classic pain pathway that all medical doctors are taught in medical school.
2:28
Well, faulty perception generates limbic inflammation, and limbic inflammation produces neuroplastic changes, which is a modulation of the brain's structure and function, and this happens through a process called reactive astrocytosis.
2:48
And this process converts emotional pain into physical pain.
2:54
And that physical pain is as real as any other type of physical pain.
3:00
And this pain is stored in the brain's memory, which is a process we call learning.
3:09
So central pain is therefore a learned pain.
3:13
And in order to heal central pain, then we must reverse this process or unlearn the pain.
3:22
And that's what I'm going to be talking about today.
3:25
This requires enabling a suffering patient to reverse the whole process by taking command of the ship, by climbing back in the saddle, and taking advantage of the brain's ability to change itself, which is the definition of neuroplasticity.
3:48
And by changing itself, we return a patient to a pain-free state whereby you are actually healed of central pain.
3:59
I found this to be very exciting as I led people in my medical practice through this process, and as a result, many hundreds, several, perhaps one or two thousand people learned firsthand that they actually could heal their central pain.
4:15
And even though they thought I was crazy at the outset of it, they realized wow, this really does work.
4:23
And so I've been really excited to share this with you.
4:28
So if we can reverse the process by taking advantage of the brain's ability to change itself, then we can completely heal central pain.
4:40
Don't tell me that it's incurable, that it can't be done because I have accomplished this way too often, repeatedly, time after time after time, in a predictable, consistent, complete and repeatedly manner without relapse and without any ongoing medications when the process is done.
5:02
And the final process is training the brain to heal the central pain.
5:09
So today I want to really drill down on that and explain to you all that I mean by training the immensely complex brain.
5:18
And I want you to have a full appreciation for this.
5:22
So let me just throw a few brain facts at you today, because the brain is by far the most complex organ in the human body.
5:33
The brain makes the world's uh most powerful supercomputers look like little tinker toys.
5:40
The human brain is so immensely complex we cannot begin to understand it because there is no comparison.
5:49
And despite what we may have heard from the World Economic Forum idiots like Yval Harari's reductionist claim that humans are nothing more than hackable animals, that is simply not true.
6:06
Hacking brains is a reference to brainwashing, and that is precisely what Harari was trying to do when he called us hackable animals.
6:18
So recognize it for what it's worth.
6:21
That organ in your bra in your brain that between the ears, the white matter, the gray matter, consists of 86 billion neurons that are intricately in communication with each other and with other types of brain cells that regulate every function in the body.
6:43
So I find this to be just fascinating.
6:46
The human brain can be simulated, but it could never be duplicated.
6:52
It is just simply too complex.
6:56
For example, a 86 billion neurons or so in the human brain.
7:02
One single neuron serves thousands of synapses on each neuron.
7:09
And each synapse has itself about one thousand molecular scale switches that can turn things on and off.
7:18
The human brain has a complexity that simply boggles the human mind.
7:24
We cannot understand our own brain.
7:27
Our knowledge of how the brain works is at best very crude.
7:33
We'll never know how we learn, process, remember, feel emote and react to sensory stimuli in our world.
7:47
But we can observe some end results of this entire complicated biological information processing, and what it tells us is that the brain's power is just way underestimated.
8:22
We are told that we were created in God's own image.
8:27
We were told to have the mind of Christ, and we can actually do that because of the brain power that God gave us.
8:37
I'm not saying that all the wonders we seek are within ourselves.
9:10
But even though the brain is so powerful that we can never understand it, just because we don't understand its power, it doesn't mean that we cannot harness its power, to overcome hardship, to eradicate pain, and to actively and intentionally cause the brain to change and repair itself.
9:38
We can.
9:40
And that is a fact that already has been scientifically proven.
9:45
And I have shared a lot of those details with you.
9:53
Have you ever surfed the internet to explore maybe some kind of a topic, whatever it may be?
10:00
Be.
10:01
Do you understand the technology that makes those searches possible?
10:05
Well, I don't understand it all by any means.
10:08
Do you even think about it?
10:10
I don't.
10:11
Although we might know nothing about electronics theory.
10:16
We use computers with great ease.
10:20
We don't think about the resistors, the diodes, the capacitors, all the circuitry that goes into a computer, you know, storing information in the clouds and the eye cloud.
10:32
What does that really mean?
10:34
We don't even know how an electron works or a proton.
10:37
Why is a proton attracted to an electron?
10:41
I don't know.
10:41
That's all theory.
10:43
I cannot explain it.
10:45
Why are there protons, electrons, neutrons that make up an atom?
10:51
And then you get into the subatomic particles.
10:53
It's a great mystery to me.
10:56
But nonetheless, even though we might not even know a thing about electronics theory, we can use these computers with great ease for very meaningful gain.
11:08
We can learn a lot of things.
11:10
Well, it's the same thing with brain function.
11:13
So what we really need to understand is that the brain is powerful, but we don't under need to necessarily understand how its power happens, how it works.
11:26
We need not understand how the brain changes itself in order to make it happen.
11:33
And that's pretty exciting.
11:34
I get it really happy about that because we only need to know that the possibility exists to change our brains, to change the way we think.
11:47
And that is very important.
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In fact, that's how God, when God tells us to have the mind of Christ, how do you have the mind of Christ?
11:55
Well, you have to change your mind.
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That's called repentance.
11:58
You have to change the way you think.
12:00
You have to restructure your brain so that it functions differently.
12:05
And that is a process of training the brain.
12:09
Now, if you can tap into that resource, you can heal any single form of central pain.
12:17
So my proposed mechanism on how we explain how I explained how central pain develops may be just as rudimentary as our entire understanding of neurobiology, of course.
12:32
I'm not a genius.
12:34
I'm not a neuroscientist, I'm not a neurosurgeon, but I do understand a lot of things about the brain because of the training that I did have, and because of my own pursuits in addiction medicine and pain medicine.
12:51
And I found that when the brain is restored to normal function, then central pain disappears permanently.
13:00
So you can make your fibromyalgia go away completely.
13:05
The first two steps in the process of reversing any central pain, which, if you remember, are removing the wrong medications, all the medications that the doctors who didn't know what they were treating put you on in the hopes of trying to improve your situation.
13:21
And then the second step, starting the right medications just to bridge the gap, because remember, once you can train the brain, you get off all the medications, and it doesn't take long.
13:32
But once those two prerequisites are met, then comes the paramount step of training the brain.
13:42
And this is the actual process that leads to the healing of your brain so that your central pain is unlearned and it goes away.
13:53
Now, this is a coaching process of learning the brain, and this coaching not only heals existing central pain, but it also actually empowers you to be the victor if and when emotional pain ever strikes again in your life.
14:14
And chances are that's going to happen because we suffer in this world in this life under the sun because it is a sinful world in which we live.
14:26
Sometimes we bring on the pain ourselves.
14:29
Sometimes things just happen to you that are bad through no fault of your own.
14:34
Sometimes bad things happen to you because you choose to do the right thing.
14:40
So this training can help you.
14:43
It can help everyone in any capacity.
14:47
I've gone through emotional trauma in my life.
14:50
I don't suffer from sensual pain because I have learned to train my brain to heal even the most immense painful things that can happen to you.
15:01
So this training process involves seven strategies that I want to share with you today that will allow you to be pain free and living again.
15:11
Now these seven strategies, I'm just trying to squeeze these into a one-hour topics here, and it's about impossible to do.
15:20
So let me get right into it.
15:23
And I'm I have shortened these a great deal.
15:26
I've taken out a lot of the details.
15:28
So I encourage you to read my book, Pain Free and Living Again, How to Heal Fibromalgia, IBS Migraines, and other mystery pain syndromes.
15:38
Because in that book, I discuss in much greater detail how these seven strategies work, how you implement them, what they do, why they do it, and why they can drastically improve your life.
15:54
So strategy number one is learning self-empowerment.
16:00
Pain is usually its own motivator for behavioral changes.
16:06
And under normal circumstances, the pain response works very well.
16:11
If you touch a hot stove, you pull away from it rapidly, you soothe the burn by dipping it in cold water, you put a bomb and an ointment on it to help promote healing, and then you put it that burn, that memory of the event into your brain cells so you can say, I'm not going to touch a hot burner again.
16:32
But patients who are suffering severe central pain, they don't know how to relieve their pain.
16:42
They struggled initially with reconciling some kind of emotional pain, and it could not be resolved.
16:50
And as a result of that, that emotional pain led to chronic centralized pain.
16:57
A typical fibromyalgia syndrome patient has been told by multiple doctors that her pain is incurable, and so she surrenders to this dogma, however wrong it may be.
17:10
She gives up in utter hopelessness and says, oh my goodness, I got to live with this forever.
17:17
Well, so step number one, learning self-empowerment means restoring a hope.
17:26
And you have to have some hope that you can be healed, that you can make your pain go away.
17:32
That is step number one.
17:35
Because unwittingly, when you live in despair from chronic pain, you tend to isolate yourself and you then tend to teach yourself how to live in a victim mode.
17:51
And that's what makes treating central pain patients so difficult for medical doctors.
17:56
It drives doctors crazy.
17:58
Because you, the central pain patient who thinks you have to live in your life of despair and hopelessness, you just learn to live in the victim mode, and you become a miserable human being.
18:14
Why that happens is because pain becomes your chief focus.
18:19
And this self-pity traps you in an abyss that seems impossible to escape.
18:28
And nothing is more energizing to you than believing that you actually have control over your pain.
18:38
So I spent a lot of time training patients from the get-go, from the very first visit saying, look, you have the power to make this go away.
18:47
You just have to be shown how to do it.
18:50
And being convinced that your pain is treatable and completely healable is the first step toward healing your central pain.
19:01
That is how you learn self-empowerment.
19:05
Knowing that you have the power to heal yourself is life-changing.
19:11
A lot of patients didn't believe it.
19:13
It might have taken them a visit or two, but I assure you, by the second or third visit, they were persuaded, whoa, I am on a journey right now, and I love where I am going because it doesn't take that long to get there.
19:26
I've spoken about Norman Deutsch, a psychiatrist and researcher, scientific researcher, who he said that the neuroplastic revolution has implications for among other things, our understanding of how love, sex, grief, relationships, learning, addictions, culture, technology, and psychotherapies change our brain.
19:58
So
20:00
Remember, he says that this neuroplastic revolution has implications for, among other things, all the things that I listed.
20:07
Well, among these, quote, other things, end quote, is the processing of emotional pain.
20:16
So the right kind of thinking can actually physically change the synapses between brain cells and reshape our lives.
20:28
The possibilities of changing your brain are endless.
20:36
Brain remodeling this neuroplasticity has enabled people with paralysis to walk to salvage troubled marriages, to exterminate obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviors, and you've got it to heal central pain.
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Now, Deutsche didn't call it central pain, but he was talking about a process that works.
21:09
So I want you to understand that neuroplasticity is the basis for eliminating central pain.
21:18
All forms of central pain.
21:34
So step one is empowerment.
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Step two.
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Well, then you have to initiate essential therapeutic lifestyle changes.
21:46
TLC.
21:48
Therapeutic means beneficial.
21:52
But it also means not a rigid, difficult or self-deep defeating change.
21:59
My fibro patients were just down and out.
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They had no extra reserve of energy.
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They were depressed, discouraged, often to the point of suicide.
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They felt totally defeated.
22:12
So when I talk about initiating therapeutic lifestyle changes, I'm not talking about going on some rigid diet or starting some kind of a rigorous exercise program or tackling some other kind of intensive, demanding lifestyle modification that requires superhuman strength to accomplish, because that is not therapeutic, and there's no way you're going to be able to do it in the shape that you're in when you first learn that you can make the pain go away.
22:45
Once you have been self-empowered to know that you can heal from your central pain, that is a great start.
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It gives you a jolt of energy that you probably haven't felt for a long time.
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Even knowing that you have a doctor who understands what he's dealing with and what you've been going through is very empowering.
23:03
But to initiate essential therapeutic lifestyle changes, we have to do it in such a way that does not further beat you down.
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Torture of any kind is not therapeutic.
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And it is counterproductive.
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It can be painful.
23:23
But at the same time, let this guiding principle lead you down the right path.
23:30
But don't play it as an excuse to avoid change.
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I know you're down and out.
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I know you've been discouraged.
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But for some people, any change at all is threatening.
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Well, and it might include even getting rid of your sensual pain.
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You've learned to live with it.
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If you feel this way, go back to step one.
23:51
Learn self-empowerment.
23:54
But once you understand that lifestyle changes must improve your quality of life, that's what they do.
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Then I think you'll be more on board to join in on making that happen.
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If you are just, I'm not introducing to you any fads.
24:13
I don't want you to take up any fad because a fad is something that comes and goes, like going on a diet.
24:21
They're not lifestyle changes.
24:23
Fads are just fads.
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They come and they go quickly, like fads in the way we dress, you know, in the way uh just new trends come out.
24:34
They come and go.
24:36
But they're not beneficial if they're not involving a lifestyle change.
24:41
Therapeutic lifestyle change involves changing your perception, which leads to changing destructive habits.
24:50
And ideally, any change in habit should be fun, it should be achievable, and it should be sustainable.
24:57
In other words, you can keep on doing it for a lifetime because number one, it provides you with some form of psychological benefit.
25:06
Number two, it improves your physical condition.
25:10
It makes you stronger.
25:12
And that is even more self-empowering.
25:17
For example, you know, you might take up dance lessons.
25:20
Well, doing something fun is therapeutic for the mind, first of all, but it also reduces pain through a joyful exercise, having some fun.
25:32
That is physically therapeutic.
25:35
And while the principle of no pain, no gain might apply to some aspects of life, I assure you, pain is what we are trying to heal.
25:47
And therefore, our goal is to minimize pain and discomfort and emotional strain.
25:55
Now, the three most effective lifestyle changes, you've heard of them.
26:00
A lot of people are talking about them nowadays, and I'm happy to see that.
26:04
We saw the turning upside down of the food pyramid.
26:07
What a great move.
26:09
I had done that some 15 years ago with my patients.
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And by the way, it worked wonderfully.
26:15
So controlling three areas of your life requires new ways of thinking and acting that are achieved by training the brain.
26:26
While they are universally healthy, they also directly reduce central pain.
26:33
The first of these is good nutrition.
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There are so many books out there right now, so many popular diets.
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And remember, popular diets are fad diets.
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The South Beach diet, the keto diet, paleo diet, Atkins diet, they're fads.
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You're on them and you're off them.
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If you go on a diet, eventually you got to go off a diet.
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And every one of these diets makes absolutely great claims.
26:58
Miracle, miracle diets.
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And so I don't endorse them.
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I do not endorse any of them.
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But I want to say this.
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For any type of a diet that you are going to practice as a lifestyle pattern or habit, they should have two goals.
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Number one, health.
27:18
Number two, for the central pain patient, pain reduction.
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So health and pain reduction is what we are after when it comes to diet.
27:27
To achieve this, and I'm going to make it as simple as I possibly can just because I'm time-limited.
27:33
Number one, eliminate all processed sugar to the greatest amount that you possibly can achieve.
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These processed sugars account for about a 50% reduction in all pain types, even non-central pain, you know, the pain of arthritis, the pain of degenerative disc disease.
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For example, soda.
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Soda ranks only one point on the 1,000-point nutritious scale.
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Soda is worthless.
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Kicking the habit, think about it.
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If if you're going to have all kinds of thousands of bad habits, I'd say, start with soda.
28:12
Kick that habit.
28:14
And kicking the habit saves what?
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Saves you money, lots of money.
28:18
It reduces your pain.
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It lowers your weight, it increases energy, it lowers your risk of osteoporosis, and it cuts the craving of sugars.
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If you remember the rule of three, your cravings begin on day three in earnest.
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By day, by week three, the craving is at a peak because of withdrawals from the sugar.
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If you were to totally stop all processed sugar, but after that, after three weeks, by three months, all of your receptors in your body are reset to a baseline, a new baseline.
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So number one, eliminate all processed sugars to the greatest extent possible.
29:00
Number two, consume whole foods.
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Whole foods are simply foods that exist in their natural form in nature.
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They are unprocessed.
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They are rich in essential vitamins and minerals.
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They are easily digestible, and they are readily absorbed.
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You don't need all the supplements, all the vitamins and minerals if you are eating healthy foods.
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Now I've heard all the arguments, oh, you know, we don't have healthy foods anymore.
29:29
That's nonsense.
29:30
I've got a garden and we we are eating plenty of healthy foods.
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We're getting all the uh the nutrients, the vitamins, the minerals, the fiber from these foods, whole foods that are easily digestible, readily absorbed, and I am not nutrient deficient.
29:48
You don't need any supplements if you eat healthy foods.
29:52
How about that?
29:54
That's kind of going against the narrative uh on supposedly the health kick side.
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But remember new.
30:00
Nutraceuticals have become a multi-billion dollar industry in America.
30:05
That should raise the yellow flag at least, and maybe a red flag.
30:09
And let me tell you, Megging mega dosing on vitamins and minerals is not natural.
30:15
And I would suggest to you it is not beneficial.
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You'll never find those megadoses in any natural food product.
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Let that speak to you, okay.
30:28
Also, when it comes to nutrition, those of you who like to drink alcohol, remember alcohol itself, alcohol, ethanol is a carbohydrate.
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So don't forget that.
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Drinks, whatever, a martini, wine, whatever you're drinking, beer, they also have hops, they have sugars, they have other things in them that are uh energy producing.
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It's very important to do that.
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In small amounts, alcohol absolutely can have medicinal value.
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The Bible does not say do not drink alcohol.
31:06
Jesus drank wine.
31:08
Jesus converted wine or water to wine, his first miracle, a cana, right?
31:13
The wedding of Cana.
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But realize that alcohol can also be abused.
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It's also potentially addictive.
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So moderation is the key.
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And if you cannot moderate it, then you need to avoid it.
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If you haven't started drinking, maybe it's best to just not go there.
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But alcohol itself can be medicinal, but it's also a carb and other contents in the alcoholic drink, you whatever you're consuming may also contribute to carbs.
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Keep that in mind.
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As a general guideline, I would suggest a modified keto diet.
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All of the fruits and vegetables you want, you can eat them to your heart's content.
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Okay?
31:58
All the fruits and vegetables you want, preferably raw overcooked.
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And then consume protein from any natural source, whatever it may be, fish, whatever kind of meats, cheese, dairy products, get some good protein.
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You can get protein from rice and beans, you can get it from nuts.
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Go for it, okay?
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And it is okay to eat small amounts of fat.
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There's no problem with that.
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When I eat a steak, I might trim the fat a little bit, but I don't avoid eating fat.
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Fat tastes good.
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And it is it really contributes to satiation, which means it fills you up and it stays with you for a long time.
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It does not contribute to heart disease like we were told for decades and decades.
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It's okay to eat small amounts of fat and even more of it if you are very physically active because you will burn the calories.
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But you want to minimize all processed food, and that is a key.
32:59
So keep that in mind and understand that when you do that, you are going to be a whole lot healthier.
33:10
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That's what it's all about.
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We are one nation under God.
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We want to live as one nation under God.
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And we are going to have some panel discussions that are really going to cover the topic.
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I can't guarantee you we're all going to be in 100% agreement, but you are gonna hear the sides of the arguments that are meaningful.
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This is how we consult with one another to discuss things in a meaningful way.
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You know, we come together and reason together, and we are called to do that.
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When we gather together, put our heads together and say, what must we do to save America?
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Well, you know, that's kind of important, and I think that we should not exhort uh uh should not ignore that.
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So by all means come and join us.
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We're gonna have a great fireworks celebration, some great speakers, guest speakers, uh, and great accommodations and just a fantastic place to be with all kinds of extra curricular activities for the family.
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Don't forget to check out America Outloud.news.
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You can uh get access to the tickets for the 250-10 celebration there.
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And also, you're gonna have access to some great articles written by some really knowledgeable people.
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And you'll also hear some radio show topics that are always dealing with the most current issues as well as the most pertinent issues of our time.
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Well, I'm concluding today a series on central pain, and specifically I've been talking about seven strategies to train the brain and heal central pain.
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So if I'm ever gonna get through this, I'd better get to it.
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So far, I have discussed the importance of actually learning how to self-empower.
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How to motivate yourself to change because change is required if you are suffering in the throes of central pain like fibromyalgia or irritable bowel syndrome, bladder pain syndrome, complex regional pain syndrome, or several other types of pain.
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Once you understand the importance of self-empowerment and how to do it, then you need to initiate essential therapeutic lifestyle changes.
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I've mentioned one of them being nutrition.
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I've made it real simple.
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Simply try to get rid of the processed foods you
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In your life, eat whole foods, all the fruits and vegetables you want, preferably raw, and then protein from any natural source.
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It's okay to eat small amounts of fat, more so if you're eating a lot.
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But minimize processed foods.
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The second step in therapeutic lifestyle changes is exercise.
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Now, how in the world does a distressed central pain patient who is nearly bedridden, pain wrapped, depressed, anxious, and hopeless.
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How do you get them to exercise?
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Well, very carefully, very slowly with encouragement.
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Physical exercise has no appeal because they, you know, these patients with central pain, you're rapidly exhausted.
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And exertion of any kind worsens the pain.
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But a sedentary lifestyle is devastating to vitality and to longevity.
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Look at what happens to quadriplegics.
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They deteriorate rapidly.
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They don't live long lives.
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Therefore, you got to start real slowly and you got to make it fun.
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Just, you know, you might just start by moving your joints.
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If you're stiffen the joints, you've been laying in bed all day, start moving the joints right while you're laying on the bed.
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Then start strengthening your muscles with low impact exercise when you can do that.
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Just take a few steps, 50 steps, go 50 feet.
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Um start by walking.
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If you got access to a pool, you could consider aquatics or bicycling or dancing or yoga.
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But if you're really, you know, if you have a disability, if you've got other pains as well, Tai Chi might be the thing to go to if walking is painful, because with Tai Chi, it's a very, very low impact exercise that helps to build strength, tone, and balance.
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So it's a great exercise.
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The key is get moving and enjoy the activity.
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Make it fun.
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And it doesn't have to be long.
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Outdoors is better than indoors.
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You know, when you get exposed to fresh air, it's great for you.
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And sunshine, it's great for you.
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And the third thing is in the way of changing your lifestyle.
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Learn all about sleep hygiene.
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Restorative sleep is what central pain patients need the most, and it's also what they are most lacking.
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You have to learn how to practice good sleep hygiene.
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It's a key determinant of success in treating all central pain.
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If I want to know how someone was doing with central pain, I just asked them, how are you sleeping?
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Because when you're exhausted from sleep deprivation, our ability to cope with any stressor is drastically reduced.
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The basic components of sleep hygiene can be had.
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You can go on to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, go on to their website.
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It has a great summary of sleep hygiene tips.
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So I'm not going to name them all right here, but you can go on their website, learn them, practice good sleep hygiene.
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But let me tell you, it does require not only a healthy nighttime ritual, but also a healthy daytime ritual.
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By the nighttime ritual, I'm talking about a comfortable mattress, a dark and quiet environment, a consistent regimen.
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We are on a circadian rhythm.
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We have a sleep-wake cycle.
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So being consistent in that cycle is important.
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Go to bed at the same time.
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Get up at the same time.
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Have a window period at the end of the day and a wind up period when you get going in the morning.
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During the daytime, avoid taking real long naps.
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That disrupts nighttime sleep.
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Avoid stimulants, especially in the afternoon.
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Avoid electronics.
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Being on the computer right before bed actually disrupts quality sleep.
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And so does a sedentary lifestyle, which is why it's so important to start moving and doing something pleasurable.
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Don't isolate yourself.
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Don't allow yourself to be in a position where you're just bored out of your mind.
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Do something fun or exciting, and you will sleep better.
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Then comes step number three.
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Another strategy that is so important is learning how to develop healthy coping mechanisms.
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Now, the both the most basic function of your brain, the central nervous system, is to permit an organism that is you to react to its environment.
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Reacting to negative stimuli is called coping.
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So how we cope is a large determinant of who we are.
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A universal human behavior that I have discussed already is avoidance of pain.
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We don't like pain.
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And so we wear protective gear in sports.
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We wear a helmet when we are bicycling or motorcycling, hopefully.
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We drive safely, not like a maniac because we know getting into a car accident can be life-threatening and very painful.
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Some people avoid rigorous physical activity simply because it hurts.
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But let me tell you, that can be a lot harder.
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None of us is immune to emotional hurt.
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And so we develop strategies to protect ourselves through coping mechanisms, which are simply stress-reducing behaviors.
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Now, coping mechanisms can be healthy or unhealthy, and they are as varied as the individuals we have on planet Earth.
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All of us have both positive and negative coping mechanisms.
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A negative coping mechanism does not reduce suffering, but instead aggravates the emotional injury or causes even more pain.
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That's a negative coping mechanism.
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Even if it brings immediate relief for a short time, like getting drunk, it contributes nothing to healing and resolution of the painful ordeal.
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So if you're reaching for alcohol or some kind of mind-altering drug, or if you're going to throw a tantrum, go into a fit of rage, that's not constructive.
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That is a negative type of coping mechanism.
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It does you no good.
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Good coping mechanisms require self-discipline and some level of maturity.
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They often must be learned.
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What are good coping skills?
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Well, exercise.
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A sense of humor does a lot of good.
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Reading self-help books can be very beneficial.
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Seeking counseling.
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And just simply understanding perspective, the life perspective of living in a sinful world.
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Yeah, we are going to take a beating sometimes, but your perspective determines your perception of any form of emotional pain.
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And when you can gain perspective on that, then you're going to learn positive coping skills.
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And that is going to help you to survive the emotional pain without further hurting yourself and without centralizing the emotional pain.
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Number four, take control of your mind and body.
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Now that sounds like a daunting task when you feel absolutely broken.
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It sounds good, but it means you have to confront your demons.
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And that's an extremely hard thing to do.
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It is very hard.
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But it also means that when you dare to do that, when you have the courage and say, all right, I'll do it.
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It means that you have a say in the outcome of your life.
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And that's incredibly empowering.
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No more pain, no more guilt, no more worry, no more despair.
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Imagine what life would be like if you can shed those, those horrible things that ruin your life.
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So the effective coach doctor will nudge you back into the pilot seat to take control of your life.
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You have to stop being a passenger.
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And that's what happens when you take control of your mind and body.
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Now there is a concept that I introduced some time back called perfectibility, which is just simply striving for a perfect standard or striving to improve based on a perfect standard.
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It's not becoming a perfectionist.
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No, nothing at all like that.
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Perfectibility is avowing that the human mind is shapable, moldable, trainable, plastic, which means able to change itself.
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Striving for perfection means you are seeking to be your best, to do your best.
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It doesn't mean that you're ever going to be perfect.
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Perfectibility is simply positively applied neuroplasticity, saying I choose to improve myself.
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While perfection belongs to God alone, and I recognize that, it is a healthy and noble pursuit.
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For imperfect human beings.
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And that's why we need the perfect standard of the Bible to guide us.
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We can never ever abide by all the laws of the Old Testament.
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It was a teacher.
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It showed us that we are imperfect human beings.
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But it doesn't mean we should not strive for self-improvement.
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That's what perfectibility is all about.
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So while perfection belongs to God alone, it is a healthy and noble pursuit for imperfect human beings.
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You have the power to change your brain, to rewire it, and to reverse your involuntary negative brain remodeling that was resulting from your emotional pain.
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So the key here is dispossess yourself from victimhood.
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Do not allow yourself to be a victim.
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Number five, practice calmness.
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Now, virtually every central pain patient I've ever dealt with just struggled with anxiety, with constant worry.
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So practicing calmness is a way to achieve a desirable state of mind that helps to unlearn your sensual pain.
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When you recognize how much and how often you are stressing, then you can change the pattern by practicing life in the calm mode.
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And when I say practicing it, I mean actually practicing it.
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You can be aided in this practice through cognitive behavioral therapy, uh, you know, a form of counseling, uh meditation, just simply focusing on it, training your brain to say, I am going to practice learning to be calm.
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I'm not going to react the way that I usually do when I'm emotionally traumatized.
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And a focused practice is so important.
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Use a timer.
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Set the timer for 15 minutes and practice living in an absolute calm, cool, collected way.
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So say I'm I'm going to, you know, I'm just going to be a calm person for 15 minutes.
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Now I can do that.
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And when you find that you can by using this proactive conscious exercise, uh, and realize it's okay to fake it.
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But as you practice calmness, well, remember the old saying, practice makes perfect.
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Calmness is its own positive feedback.
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The more you practice, the more it becomes you, the more it changes your brain chemistry so that you actually start becoming a calm person.
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You start smiling more and living in this relaxed mode that is so refreshing.
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So keep that in mind.
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Number six, practice induced extraversion.
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By that I mean take the focus off yourself, off of your pain, off of all your woes.
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It's part of escaping the victimhood status that you've been living living in, perhaps.
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And you practice induced extroversion, it means just forcing yourself to reach out to others for their benefit.
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Because that makes you feel better about yourself when you're helping others.
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It distracts your focus on your pain, which then raises your pain threshold, makes you feel less pain, and it lowers your perception of pain.
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And this, which means, you know, less perception of pain is less negative feedback.
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And so as you practice reaching out and focusing on other people, it takes the focus off yourself, off of all the negativity, and it actually allows you to bless someone else while dosing yourself with medicinal social networking.
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It's good for you.
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When we dare to socially interact in a positive way, well, we give as well as receive positive energy.
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Jesus Himself said it is more blessed to give than to receive.
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That's in Acts chapter 20, verse 35.
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Great memory verse.
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Makarios, the Greek word for blessed means happy.
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It is hard to feel pain and happiness at the same time.
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Joy reduces pain.
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So having fun can be very therapeutic.
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But choose wisely.
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And that leads me to the last of the strategies to train the brain, and that is setting boundaries.
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That is so important.
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Interacting with people, as you know, is sometimes very challenging.
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Whether it's a spouse, sibling, children, parents, friends, or co-workers.
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People do have a way of stepping on our toes.
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It's just part of being human.
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But ignoring verbal assaults only encourages more abuse.
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Most people would much rather accept mistreatment rather than confront the offender.
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But you know that the bully who picks on you once, if he sees he can get away with it, he's going to do it again.
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That might be a spouse who is trying to hurt you.
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It could be a child.
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It could be someone else in your family who is intentionally trying to hurt you because they know they can get away with it.
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Well, I hope that I have truly obliterated the incurable myth.
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And I hope that I have opened the door for your transformation to a better, happier, and holier life.
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You've been listening to Unity Without Compromise with Dr.
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Steve Lato.
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Adjure.