When you’re writhing in pain, you’re probably not thinking about “going holistic.” You just want the agony to stop. You’ll take the pill, the shot, the bullet –
anything to put an end to the pain. If you suffer from chronic pain, however, learning (and living) holistic pain management principles can change your experience of pain – both chronic and acute.
The topic of pain management isn’t a simple coin toss of equally consequential remedies. The approach to treating pain is so critical that it is the very foundation of holism.
Without holistic pain management, your choices come down to pills or more barbaric measures.
We certainly don’t want you to make an appointment with Dr. Sawbones, and we also don’t want you relying on pills.
Everyone knows we have a global opioid crisis. But not everyone makes the connection to how it started and what drives it.
Before you judge the heroin addict whose life is in ruins, consider this: About 80% of those who use heroin first misused prescription opioids.
That’s right. These were people trying to get out of pain. And Big Pharma, much like the tobacco industry, assured them that their product would not be addictive.
Sell their bill of goods to the medical community, knowing that doctors would hand it out like candy to their patients suffering from pain. Non-addictive? No more pain? What’s the downside?
Well, we’re seeing the downside. And it’s tragic.
So where does that leave the person who suffers from chronic pain?
There’s not a prescription medicine on the planet that doesn’t offload its own set of problems under the guise of treating something else.
Consider, for example, that the number-one cause of high blood pressure in this country is anti-anxiety drugs. So, a person turns to pharmaceuticals to calm his or her anxiety and ends up on an ACE inhibitor to control high blood pressure.
It makes no sense.
Used to treat an acute injury or trauma, pharmaceuticals have their place. But, once you pass the six-week point of that condition with no resolution, it’s time for an approach that is sustainable.
Holistic pain management is an approach to treating chronic pain in a way that sets you up to thrive. It not only treats chronic pain. It also allows you to endure acute situations you would never think survivable without drugs or anesthesia (or the bullet).
Holism is now half a century old. And those who have embraced it know that it is life-altering, especially for chronic pain and disease.
So let’s review some of its main points.
Here are 8 keys to holistic pain management:
1.Remember that you are a spirit with a body, not the other way around.
You have a body – a vehicle that is given to you in service to your spirit.
You are more than just the physical! The truth of who you are and the purpose for which you exist rise above the physical.
The essence of holism, then, also rises above the physical. The “wholeness” of who you are – indeed, the “holiness” of who you are – is the oneness of your body, mind, spirit, and emotions.
2. Nutrition.
Pharmaceutical drugs aren’t the only toxic things you can put into your body. The grocery store is a veritable death trap of toxic, inflammatory, life-draining “drugs.”
Stay away from the center aisles, which are stocked with processed foods. If it’s packaged in plastic or cardboard…run.
The leading cause of premature death in this country is obesity. And obesity is preventable!
Learn how to eat >for your body so that it can continue working for your spirit.
3. Supplementation.
There are fundamental supplements that need to be part of your daily nutrition program. Vitamin C (preferably intravenous), a good B complex, Shealy-Sorin Youth Formula, Shealy-Sorin Essentials, and vitamin D3, to name a few, are essential for good basic health.
But supplementation, not drugs, should also be used strategically in the treatment of chronic illness and pain.
4. Exercise.
Your body was created to move. If you don’t use it, you lose it.
You may not be able to do things you once did, but you can always do something.
Movement is essential for circulation, lymph flow (consider the Accu-Massage device), muscle development and maintenance, bone density, good sleep, and brain health.
It also releases endorphins, which help to keep anxiety and depression at bay. And, given that pain and depression go hand-in-hand, movement is a core component to holistic pain management.
5. Sleep.
Sleep is nature’s nurse. It’s your body’s natural period of restoration. But pain can prevent a good night’s sleep, leading to a cascade of other physical and mental issues.
Every component of your lifestyle will affect your sleep – diet, exercise, stress, and mental training – it all comes into play.
6. Training your brain.
Our culture has it all backwards. We live as if our bodies are in charge of our minds instead of the other way around.
When your brain is properly trained, everything changes, including your pain.
Autogenic training (a component of the Biogenics® course) puts your brain in charge of your body.
When you learn to receive pain as sensory information, you can detach emotionally from it. You can then choose the information (and directives) you send back into
When youperceive pain differently, you respond to it differently.
7. Stress management.
The death certificate may list “heart attack” as the cause of death. But peeling away the layers that led to it will inevitably lead to one factor that’s behind 90% of all illness: stress.
Learning to manage this one factor will have a trickle-down effect on every aspect of your life. And it will eliminate much of the pain that you’re seeking to control.
8. Stop. Smoking.
Smoking is unequivocally the leading cause of preventable death. It’s confounding that 22% of adults still smoke. Just. Stop!
So here you are – at a crossroads with regard to your pain management. If you’ve read this far, you can’t pretend you don’t know anymore.
You know, as you probably have all along, that relying on conventional medicine and our current healthcare system is a constant trade-off. You mask or manage one issue, but you introduce or exacerbate others.
Your choice is to blindfold your pain for the moment or, with holistic pain management, to allow your body, mind, and spirit to rise above it.
Norman Shealy, M.D., Ph.D. is the father of holistic medicine. Dr. Sergey Sorin is a holistic physician as well as the CEO and medical director of the Shealy-Sorin Wellness Institute. Both doctors recommend the Biogenics® System as part of your overall commitment to self-health and enhancing your positivity.