I
f you’re living with pain that has lasted a while – many weeks, months, or even
years – this is a message from my heart to your heart. It’s called chronic pain because it doesn’t go away either on its own, or with conventional treatment. After a while, when we have it, the pain becomes an integral part of our lives. It’s always there, sometimes worse, some- times better, but we can count on it to be there. In fact, it be- comes so familiar that we forget how our bodies feel in the ab- sence of the pain. We lose conscious awareness of our- selves as pain-free beings. At this point, the pain has
us, we don’t have the pain. It has become a reality, one which is so strong that our expectation of its being there is automatic. It becomes the “Truth” for us. When we think of the future, we unconsciously include the pain in our thoughts, our feelings, because, “..well, that’s just the way it is.” Function- ally, we lose touch with the ability to think of ourselves, to visualize our bodies in any other condition but bearing this pain. For a number of evolutionary reasons, this process of adaptation likely worked for us as a species for some millions of years. Came an injury, the body quickly patched things up so that we could escape attack. If we survived, we learned to live with our resulting (painful) limitations. Life went on. However, that was then, and this is now, when the adaptation, the living into the pain, is no longer necessary or useful. It’s counter-productive, actually. Nevertheless, the existing system of
HYPERBARIC OXYGEN THERAPY
Appointments: 336-259-8138 ask for Sheryl Kenny
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy of High Point 2400 S. Main Street • High Point • 336-259-8138
20
NaturalTriad.com
system we and our ancestors built. It’s called “There’s Only One Right Way.” What’s missing is us.
The Doorway to FREEDOM
health care in our culture functions to perpetuate the adaptation process. When injured, we go to a practitioner who is covered by insurance. That means we go to a medical doctor – usually to a family doctor, one of those who previously were known as GP’s – general practitioners. If that doc’s unsuccessful at fixing our prob- lem, we’re referred to a specialist, then to a second and third specialist. With waiting times of one-to-several weeks, trials of this and that medication and no real relief of pain, somewhere in this lengthy process, our pain becomes that “Truth” described above. By now, much money has been spent, much pain has been borne and a lot of time has been devoted to the relief of pain – to no avail. The pain just throbs on.
Does all of this sound familiar? It’s the
Opening the Doorway What if we had quickly found relief – more than re- lief, a complete ending or resolution of the pain – be- cause the cause was ad- dressed. Our “Truth” then would be that we were healed, well, free of pain. This is the possibility we must always hold onto, not the adaptation to pain, even if we’ve tried many practitio- ners and found no answer. We do this by the work of the mind on the brain and body. With our minds, we can open the door to the right
kind of practitioner to help us, whether allopathic (western medicine), holistic, eastern, or some combination. Then we must follow the course of treatment indi- cated to its conclusion. Abandoning treat- ment in the middle of the process is permit- ting the pain adaptation to reassert itself – to maintain the “Truth” of the pain. It is necessary to risk that the treatment
might not work, that we may be disap- pointed. Disappointment is not an indica- tor of the truth. It is a feeling which can be recognized and owned, and separated from our desire for healing. To minimize that possibility of disappointment, we might well, particularly if our pain is joint or muscle pain, look beyond allopathic medicine – start out treatment in a modal- ity that is often more effective than tem- porary pharmacological relief. If what we really want is freedom from
chronic pain, we will become aware that there is more than one right way, and that the right way for us is the one that works. We will walk through that awareness as the doorway into freedom from chronic pain, searching out that way until we find our freedom.
Submitted by Kent McKeithan, McKeithan Pain Treatment Center in Winston-Salem, NC. For more information, call 336-761- 0501 or visit
www.mckeithanptc.com.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52