Larry O'Mahony

So first of all, we have like biologically, so what we're perceiving.

And then we have psychologically, which is how we're feeling.

And then we look at environmentally, which is our environment and our lifestyle.

So to break the cycle, if our brain becomes afraid of pain,

normal activities and movements, we have to slowly start reintroducing those movements.

So pacing is a really good way.

So if you haven't walked in a long time, if you haven't moved, maybe you'll try and start doing maybe just 10 minutes a day of an activity.

Because what can happen for people with persistent pain is that they might have a good day and then they do loads.

They do the garden and they clean the shelves and then the following day is a really bad day

And then they don't do anything for a while and it reinforces this cycle.

And so it's about slowly seeing, can you start to do maybe a 10 minute walk every day and not overreaching and then slowly building on that.

Yeah, I suppose it's understanding that pain isn't just biological.

Like it's also, because it's coming from your brain, it's going to be influenced by factors like, you know, your sleep, your stress.

It'll also be influenced by, you know, does your brain think that this is a harmful movement for you?

Does it see threat there?

So you have to slowly start to show your brain, actually, this movement is safe for you to do.

So it's like retraining your brain and...

Once again, so exercise, movement, pacing and breathing, social connection, all of these are really good ways to calm your central nervous system.

So for those who might have persistent pain, it's actually very hopeful because in the past there was always this idea that if you have damage, for example, a disc bulge, you know, which a lot of people get diagnosed with,

They would have said, oh, I just have that.