If you are in the world of managing your pain, you've maybe heard the term 'self-efficacy'. If you've taken the Pain Management quiz, maybe you were told that you have a high level of it.
But what the heck is it? I'll say that the fact you are reading these words, you have some self-efficacy. You have the drive, the belief that you have the power within you to start making changes and succeed at a particular task.
Now, when you are experiencing pain & illness or low energy there is often a strong sense of defeat, despair that this mental/emotional load of painful sensations will never go away and all we want most in the world is for it to go away! This challenges our sense of self-efficacy and steers us to look for help elsewhere, usually within the medical system.
The medical system is frustrating at best and we turn to Google to help us make sense of our experience. Understandable, though often more frustrating for so many reasons. But sometimes, if you combine the right words, you happen upon something that gives you actionable tools, hope, a path to follow. I do hope that is how you landed here.
Not saying my approach works for everyone, but for the majority that it does work for, it really works. It shows you that you have the power within you to take control and guide your nervous system back to a place of normality. A place where sensations in the body can be seen for what they are, not feared and seen as dangerous.
This new awareness and sense of safety creates the sense of power that you now hold and the belief that you now are in control and have the ability (though it is still work) to succeed in the task of managing your pain levels.
Let's take the next step and keep learning!
Comments