Pain and your nervous system

Last night at yoga therapy, I asked the two yogis, also brothers, about pain and how you know when to push through it. Since I'm starting physio next week, I figured that some pain was part of the process of getting my mobility back.

Their responses were really cool because they feel that pain is a signal from your nervous system that something is not right. That you should:

•  stop or slow down
•  try the action again with another muscle engaged (usually more core muscles)
•  Sometimes, the goal is to eliminate pain or, if you are living with chronic pain, the goal is to minimize it and then to relax your nervous system
• actively lay in quiet to relax your nervous system (20 minutes is perfect)
• use a pillow, foam or rolled up clothes to cushion your painful spot during active rest
• I tried all these techniques and they worked for me :)

Pain is not ideal and it stresses your body. I know this to be true because I've seen how my breath, heart rate and feelings can change to encourage or discourage: convulsions, muscle spasms, vomiting, eye twitching, stress and fear. I guess that this is all super obvious but I didn't stop and identify what my fast paced, push-through-the pain thoughts were doing within my own body.

Also, when you want water give it to yourself with pleasure. It's the only thing that's always good for you. I used to go to a super-intense yoga place where they asked that you not drink water..... and it was like 100 degrees Fahrenheit in there. So weird and yet, I did it because I thought I might look like the cute, bikini wearing girl in front of me. Guess what, I didn't and I was still thirsty.

p.s. It's recipe Thursday but I went to Globefish today and nary a recipe did I make. I'll do it tomorrow :).