Restoring normal movement – With stretching, light movements and exercise
Homeostasis
Our brain is equipped to receive and assess a lot of complex information all of the time to maintain homeostasis – keeping all of our vital functions stable.
Information comes from the cells within our brain and body as well as from the surrounding environment via our vision, taste and hearing.
From our body, our brain receives information from light touch sensors, heavy touch sensors, vibration sensors, nociceptors, joint position sensors, pressure sensors and temperature sensors. It also receives feedback from all of our organs including our heart, lungs, arteries and kidneys.
Persistent pain trains our brain to pay more attention to the information related to the body part experiencing pain and focus on it.
Retraining our brain
We can train ourselves to pay more or less attention to the information coming from our body.
When we experience pain, our brain is saying – “there is danger in my body“. If we know that our brain is saying this, we can use different techniques to convince our brain that our body is ok. That is, we need to know that our body is ok, and then we have to prove it is ok.
We can retrain our brain by performing normal movements of our body
When we do this, we activate our touch sensors, our vibration sensors and our joint position sensors which provide positive feedback to our brain about the state of our body. This refreshes the brain and establishes that everything is ok. Doing exercise and functional activities is an extension of this and necessary for healthy brain function.
Think about how moving relieves pain – a good example is if you jam your finger in a drawer – what do you do? You move it of course! By shaking it, you activate joint and vibration sensors which switch off the nociceptors. This is known as Gate Control Theory.
You don’t have to be experiencing pain to benefit (it is good for every body). Start a preventative brain refresh early each day
