(music) #7 Lower Back - let me bore your PAIN AWAY (Jason Newland)

Hello and welcome to jasonnewland.com. My name is Jason Newland. Please only listen when you can safely close your eyes. Now this is going to be a chronic pain relief session.

It can also be used for stress relief as well. Because the same technique can be used for both. Now I realize I've just repeated myself then.

And you may think, but hey how can the same technique, the same thing be used for both? Well let me tell you. So it's adapting it. So for example, if you're looking to reduce the physical discomfort of your back, which is what we're looking to do, reduce stress and anxiety, it reduces your chronic pain.

When you reduce your chronic pain, it reduces stress and anxiety. So even in itself about focusing or thinking about reducing or increasing relaxation rather, it happens naturally. It's part of the same process.

So we're going to focus on the lower back. Left or right or both. Now make sure you know the cause of the chronic discomfort before listening any further.

Seek advice from your doctor, GP, medical specialist, pain specialist, surgeon, whatever, medical professional, back specialist, whatever. To make sure that it is chronic pain rather than some underlying condition that needs emergency attention. So if you know it's chronic pain, and I don't want to keep saying the word pain because it's not ideal, but you know that's what we're here for, to listen to.

I won't be saying that word anymore during the recording, but as long as you know the cause of that discomfort, then we can proceed. And some people might, well I say might, I have had people question why I say this. Well, first of all, I'm not a doctor.

I can't diagnose things. It's, it can be very important not to mask over signals, which is, that's what pain is, it's just a signal. It's a warning signal to let you know that there may be something wrong.

There may not be, but you know, get it checked out. Basically, that's it. And I use the example of a stomach.

Someone has um, shooting sharp problems in their stomach or abdomen, then, you know, you could reduce that discomfort. But what if it's appendicitis? The appendix burst and it, you know, my brother's appendix burst and he's, it was very bad for him. He survived, but blimey, he don't often go on about it.

Well, he did then, so yeah, so the idea is to avoid people keep talking about it. Oh, my appendix burst, yeah, okay, we get it. No, but it's serious, so you've got to be careful.

Now, I don't like being serious, it bores me. But, you know, when it comes to people's health and well-being, which is why I'm doing these boring recordings, then it's important to just be a bit careful. So if you have a chronic condition with your lower back, physical condition, which is safe to work on, safe to talk about, safe to reduce, then reduce it.

I mean, why hold on to something you don't need? That's the equivalent of just walking around with a big backpack full of nail cuttings since you were born. I mean, why? It'd weigh you down, especially once you get to 90, like me. All them nail cuttings, and they get heavy after a while, after a few years, I think.

I've not done it, so I don't know, but I'm guessing. Or all your hair, every time you get a haircut, you know, add that with your nail cuttings, the bag would be bigger than me. I'm pretty big, or my belly is.

So, my belly is actually 80% of my body, would you believe it? You wouldn't carry around a bag full of hair and nail clippings. And some people say, well, why not? Well, you can answer that. Why would you not do that? I think, I'm guessing, I may be wrong.

I was wrong once before in 2006, but generally right most of the time, apart from when I'm not, is you wouldn't carry around a big bag full of nail clippings and hair, because it's unnecessary, it's pointless, there's no reason. Well, if you know that you don't need that physical discomfort in your back, there's no need to have it, is there? It's another thing that's unnecessary. When you get out of the swimming pool, you don't keep your snorkel on, do you?

And your flippers, if you wear flippers.

You know, you don't walk around the supermarket in your flippers and, you know, spend the rest of the year walking around in your flippers and your snorkel, because that'd make some very strange wedding photos, I guess, because it's no use to you. It was useful then. When we hurt ourselves, pain is very useful to let us know to be careful and to, you know, get medical treatment.

But with a broken bone, if you have broken leg, for example, or broken ankle, you need to have that pain to start with. And with a broken bone, with my experience, I've had a few broken bones, unfortunately. And you kind of have to go and get it checked out, because the pain will stay until you do.

If it's broken, and it needs to be, well, just maybe just x-rayed and set, you know, or have a plaster on it or some kind of cast. So once that's done, though, once you leave the hospital, what do you need that discomfort for? What use is it? It was useful to start with, as a real warning, a proper like, you need to take this seriously. Because, you know, you can't walk around on a broken bone because it can be serious consequences.

So, you know, someone had, there are some people born with no physical feelings, no physical sensations. And quite often, they don't live very long, because they don't have that warning they need to have. And, you know, I always thought it'd be brilliant.

Oh, I want to be, I want to be like that. I wanted it was, I don't know what it was, it might have been on the Bionic Man or it might have been Wonder Woman. But there was this character, and he just didn't feel pain.

He didn't, he was indestructible. So, you know, a bear would attack him and you'd see him getting chucked around and then he'd just walk off, smiling. He smiled a lot.

For some reason, he always had a different hat. Every time you see him, but that's not really relevant. Is, I thought it'd be good, but apparently it's really not.

But maybe we can find a midway. Why have something if it's of no use? Or why use something when it's already been used, and it's done its purpose? I mean, there's a reason why we have empty toilet rolls, you know, the little cardboard, I don't know if you have a toilet roll where you live, but there's a, you know, the circular cardboard thing in the middle. There's a reason why we end up with those.

It's because we flush the toilet paper away, or get rid of it. We don't just leave it around. Even though we can't use it again, because it's been used, and this is a gross visual, but it's of no use.

But it's still there. It's been used, but it's still there. It needs to go.

It's pointless. And that's what chronic pain is really. It's done its bit.

I think the scientific concept of chronic pain is basically you've got acute pain, and if it lasts more than a certain amount of time, it's now chronic pain. It's basically that your body's healed. Your body's healed, and the chronic pain is not needed.

It might be manifested for different reasons. The brain's just not working, and not working as in brain damaged. Because you say, oh, your brain's not working.

That can be an insult, can it? Some people. What do you say about my brain? But not in that way. It's just faulty.

Again, that doesn't sound too good either. I'll just focus back on your lower back, by the way, just to see. I mean, you can focus on other parts of your body if you want, but I think we're going to do the lower back on this one.

Just notice what number was it between, say, zero being zero, like, ah, and 10 being the worst possible feeling you could ever have. Now, where is it now? Where was it before you started listening? Okay, so now just keep a track of that and notice how it goes down during the recording. So, if, what was I saying? Yeah.

If that physical sensation continues after it's no longer needed, then that's classed as chronic. Now, with something like a broken bone, the pain is there to help us, to make sure we don't walk or use that part of the body until it's healed. So, providing we don't, there's no point in having any discomfort at all.

So, say, with a broken ankle, providing you're not putting any weight on the ankle, the ankle can be fine, doesn't need any discomfort at all apart from the initial, you know, when it's broken. Once it's treated, once it's been sorted, once you know what's wrong with it, you can go home and it can feel fine if you allow it to, when you realise that it's not needed anymore, your body has done a wonderful job for you, you can be thankful to your ankle.

Because, you know, I don't know the ins and outs, but I think walking around on a broken bone could be quite disastrous for the person, potentially, like physically dangerous.

So, it's good that we have that warning. This warning, this warning process is just, the way I've heard it described by specialists, is basically, you know, with a situation, someone let's say falls over, and the signal goes to their brain that they've fallen over, or someone bashes their hand. The signal that that's happened goes to the brain from the physical part of the body.

This is like lightning fast, times a million, really, really fast. And then the brain decides whether or not it's painful, or it's not, whether to send a signal of pain, or just to ignore it. Maybe send a sign, a signal of mild discomfort.

Maybe just nothing. Now, apparently, when we spend a lot of time, if someone spends a lot of time focusing on physical discomfort, then that signal becomes stronger, because it causes almost like, you know, if you know, cutting yourself, cutting your way through a forest, and you build a pathway. So that pathway is thick and deep, easy to get through.

So that pain signal keeps coming, keeps coming, keeps coming, because that's being built. It's, you know, that, that pathway is really, really strong. Now, what happens by listening to me, and my boring voice is, those pathways start to get grown over.

Like a field in the summer. There's a field where I work, where I live. I don't live in the field, I'm not a rabbit, but I live near a field.

I guess everyone in England lives near a field, because this whole country is just fields, with towns and, you know, cities and villages around, but it's mainly fields. The whole of England is fields, pretty much. We are all rabbits, actually.

And there's a pathway that is being clearly, like, it's just there. All through, probably from autumn, fall, autumn, until spring. So for quite, you know, nine months of the year, maybe more, completely easy to walk through.

Because it's, it's been trampled down, maybe for generations, of dog walkers, people just walking through the field. This is the side of the field, you know, not actually through the actual field, where they're growing stuff. So that, that pathway is very, very firmly there, and will be there for a long time, I guess.

But what happens is, in order to keep it clear, you've got to keep walking through there. And by walking through, you knock away stuff that's trying to grow from the side. Once people stop walking there for a while, all the weeds and all the growth and all the different things, the bushes grow from the side.

And cover the path. So you can't even see where the path is. And if you try and walk through the path, you know, walk on the path, not only can you not see your own feet, there's a chance of tripping up.

And I don't want that, because then I might end up breaking my wrist. And that'd be weird, considering I'm talking about trying to get rid of and reduce chronic pain. And use an analogy, which created it, brilliant.

But you know, it's not travelable, you can't get through that pathway anymore. Because it's grown over, and it happens very, very quickly. Very quickly.

And so the less often it's used, the quicker it grows over. You know, if you if you've got 1000 people walking through a bit of grass, you know, 1000 people every day, walking across that grass, the grass will be broken. And eventually the mud will be hard, trampled down mud, it'll be a pathway.

Once that reduces, and it's less people, and then maybe no one uses the pathway for a while, and it starts to become green again. Not the mud, I mean grass, grass starts. So I guess in a sense, it's like a blockage, isn't it? It's like trying, if you've got a hosepipe, and you stick your finger on the end of the hosepipe, you're blocking the water from just flowing easily.

And it makes sense that, you know, once, especially if that, if you know what comes out the hosepipe is going to be, you know, maybe not particularly pleasant. You can handle it because it's just a drip, and it's hardly noticeable. But once you got your finger over it for a few minutes, or a few hours, you know, this is built up, and it's going to squirt out.

And instead of just one little drop, that's hardly noticeable, you're going to get drenched. And you're going to feel it. Or you expect to.

Fact is, you might not, but you know, you'd maybe expect to. So I guess the answer to that is you don't put your finger over the hosepipe, the end of the hosepipe, you just allow it to drip. So that feeling, not only is practically invisible, but you get used to it as well.

It's like, oh, it's nothing. But I know it's like with my back now. I've got, I've got lower back issues.

And it's on my left side, had it for years, just gradually kind of, I think it's worn. I've been told I've got arthritis, but who knows. But again, it's not, it's just a title that doesn't mean anything to me with my, with my back.

It's, you know, I've been told to do weights and to try and strengthen it and stretch it and all that stuff and walk for long distance to sort of keep it flexible and everything. So I do all those things. Sometimes.

When I run out of chocolate to eat. And to me, it's like, well, I don't need it. Do I really? I don't need that discomfort.

Not really. It's not useful to me. But something I do notice, and I don't know about you, but there's a fine line between discomfort and itchiness.

I don't know, it might sound strange. Might sound absolutely normal. You know, if you, you might have experienced the same thing, but sometimes I'll just focus on that part.

We're doing, you know, so I'm focused on my lower back right now, but it's the same for every part of your body. But I'll focus on it and it'll be, yeah, it's, it's not doing much to be honest with you. It's just there.

Sometimes it almost feels like it's stretching itself. Like it's doing its own little exercises without me. Well, I couldn't wait any longer.

Let's just get on with it. He's still eating chocolate and watching television. Let's get on with the exercises.

So I think my lower back just does its own thing. But sometimes it's all right. Yeah.

Now, as it relaxes, there's a sense, if you don't know, if you could feel that as well, there's a sense of, it's a feeling, but it's not unpleasant. It's not pleasant necessarily. It's just a feeling.

But now that itchiness has started. But it's not an itchiness that needs scratching. It's an internal itchiness.

And it feels, it feels quite pleasant, a little bit, maybe. Definitely better than how it was. Yeah.

Yeah, it's definitely. The thing about it is I noticed that when you focus on your lower back, and you sometimes have to look for it, not your back, because obviously it's there. But that physical feeling that maybe you wanted to change, sometimes it hides.

Have you ever gone to the doctor and, or even the dentist and sort of said, like, Oh, wait, then it says which tooth is it? And like, Oh, which tooth hurts? Um, if it's one of the ones on the right, you knew which one it was on the way there. But once you get there, it's like it just disappears. I remember once I had a bad knee, went in, the knee was absolutely fine.

Once I actually left the waiting room, went to the doctor's office. And I said, where he said, whereabouts is it? I said, well, it's my knee, it's in the middle of the leg. And he said, boy, I told you about that.

If you're going to be sarcastic, you're going to have to get yourself a different doctor. I said, okay. I was only 10.

Okay, it was last year. But he said, I remember it was it was so weird. I couldn't find it.

In the end, he was getting frustrated. He said, well, at least tell me which knee it was. I said, I can't remember.

It's gone. It's disappeared. So it's weird the way our bodies play little tricks with us.

Maybe our bodies get bored. Do you think maybe wouldn't surprise me because I am like one of the most boring people on the planet. So I imagine my my back gets very bored.

In fact, sometimes it's too bored to even have any feelings. Just can't be bothered. Just gets bored.

And that seems to be what happens when I talk to people. A boring voice, my board, just whatever I'm talking about, is I see people their eyes glaze over. We're in reality when I talk to people in real life.

But it's almost when I do these recordings, it's almost like the part of the body glazes over. So, you know, we're talking about lower back. And the lower back just glazes over.

Almost goes to sleep, maybe. No longer has the same experience, the same physical experience as you had before. And it's always worthwhile just to revisit.

If you go back, focus on your go back to your back, back to back, go to your lower back, just notice how it feels. I mean, you may be surprised. Just notice what number is if there's a number.

Zero to 10 or 10 down to zero. Just, you know. Sometimes it's weird, you know, that feeling, that itchy feeling.

Sometimes I almost feel like there's a breeze. It's not me imagining there's a breeze. It just sometimes feels like there's a breeze blowing into my lower back.

Like a cool breeze. And when that happens, it feels really comfortable. Now, admittedly, I say I don't imagine it.

I suppose I could imagine it. That probably had the same effect, I suppose. But sometimes, you know, because I do meditation and I like to do a body scan and focus on different parts.

And sometimes I just like to sit and focus on just one part of my body and just observe, just see what it's up to. And sometimes it does feel with my lower back that sometimes almost when I breathe in, it feels like there's a cool air being pushed into that area. It does feel more relaxed.

I remember years and years and years ago, 2006. The first thing I noticed when I was seeing people for chronic pain is that relaxation reduces it. In every single situation, 100 times out of 70, reduced it.

And I was like, wow, I need to get better at maths. And it was like, okay. But that does make sense because when you feel more relaxed, you're looser.

Muscles are looser. And when your muscles are looser, it makes sense that you're going to feel more comfortable. It's kind of logic, really, isn't it? I think I'm saying anything that's particularly mind blowing right now.

I'm not going to win the Pulitzer Peace Prize of science or whatever. But mind you, there is a million pound reward for that. So yeah, can you nominate me? Thank you very much.

And that pathway, as it overgrows, parallel to that, there seems to be a new pathway that's grown, where you have that part of your body connected to the sense of feeling relaxed. So when you think about that part of the body, the signal goes and it happens so quickly. The signal goes to your brain and your brain decides that you're feeling relaxed and you're feeling fine.

And then that signal goes back down to that part of the body. So that you feel relaxed and you feel fine. And it's that circular situation.

You're feeling fine. So you're feeling fine. You're feeling fine now.

So you feel fine in the future. You were feeling relaxed a second ago. And there's that feedback, the feedback loop.

And nothing's changed. So if you felt fine two minutes ago, and you felt fine one and a half minutes ago, you felt relaxed a minute ago. You felt calm and peaceful 50 seconds ago.

You felt loose, really loose in your back 40 seconds ago. 30 seconds ago. You can notice maybe the breathing in of the cool air into that part of your back.

Maybe 20 seconds ago, you can notice that feedback, that feedback loop of feeling comfortable. And 10 seconds ago, maybe noticing that you don't really care. To be honest, you're not even that bothered now.

There's other things to think about. This is just getting a bit boring now. I don't, you don't even want to think about your lower back or anything like that.

There's other stuff to do. You know, there's other things to do that are more important, that maybe need your attention. And you feel different.

Different. You just feel you maybe you can't quite put your finger on it or explain it away. But you know, you really know that something's changed.

And it may, it may not make any sense. But does it have to? Do you even care that it makes no sense? But something's changed. You feel different.

And you don't know this is gonna last. This is just a, this is going to be for a few hours, or is it going to be for a few days or but you also don't care. You kind of like, well, knowing the, I guess not, not knowing as in like hoping or wishing or anything, but just realizing that that pathway, that new pathway is opened up.

That new pathway is really clear. My boring voices created that pathway of calmness and relaxation and peacefulness. And maybe, maybe a little bit of itchiness in your back.

Maybe the cool air blowing through your lower back. And that feeling of just like, you know, I don't care. Who cares? There's other things to think about.

This, this, the subject is boring now. I just don't really want to even think about it. I definitely don't want to hear about it.

It's so tedious. And the idea of listening to me going on and on and on and on is like, okay, I surrender. You can if you please leave, please, you can go.

But take that with you. Take that stuff that was there before with you. And just leave me with the comfort.

I'll just stay with the comfort and I'll just enjoy feeling relaxed and peaceful and just move on. Because there's other things to do. Other things to talk about.

It's fun to be had. I do find it interesting though, how changes occur when we don't even necessarily do anything or seemingly do anything to cause those changes. They just occur.

They're just done. Almost instantly. And some people might be thinking, this is strange.

How can listening to some boring British man be helpful at all? When all he's done is talk about random things, rambling on and on and on for what seems like years and years and years and years. But it hasn't been, it's only been about a month. And something changes.

And it's impossible for things not to change because we're always changing. Always. I could go to sleep, you know.

I could so easily drift off to sleep. Anyway, that's the end of this. Let me bore your pain away.

Thank you for listening. And again, remember to be kind to yourself. Lots of love.

And maybe listen to this regularly. Maybe every day, if need be. Noticing the benefits of being bored.

The benefits of a really boring voice such as mine. Talking about boring things transforms the way you feel. Bye for now.

Bye.