Brilliantly Resilient

Is your brain keeping you in pain? The emotional responses we have to trauma--which often stay with us--can trigger the brain to continue to send a physical pain response in our bodies.

Huh? Isn't pain caused by a physical issue in the body? Well, yes. Unless it isn't.

Patty Tashiro experienced a mother's nightmare when her daughter and her husband were rear-ended by a speeding car--and Patty, on the phone with her daughter, heard the whole thing.

Patty's daughter, 10 at the time, had a severe brain bleed, but miraculously survived her injuries. Yet, despite her body healing from obvious physical injury, Patty's daughter continued to suffer from debilitating pain, confounding doctors.

Finding no help from traditional physicians (One doctor told Patty that if her daughter "wasn't barfing, she should be in school,") Patty began researching and discovered Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy, which utilizes the brain's ability to "rewire" itself (neuroplasticity) to help those suffering to reprocess trauma and reduce the brain's reaction--thus lessening chronic pain. Patty continued exploring similar options and is now certified in brain health coaching and Pain Reprocessing Therapy.

Clearly, seeking alternative help for her daughter required Patty to change her thinking and be willing to look at things differently. Here at Brilliantly Reseilient, we refer to seeing the world through a different "lens," being open to new ideas, experiences and opportunities to grow--and heal.

To learn more, visit Patty's website and tune in to this week's episode of the Brilliantly Resilient podcast for these additional bits of wisdom:

• What is the brain's role in perpetuating pain?
• Our nervous systems are completely different depending on our life experiences.... How is your nervous system working--for you or against you?
• The brain is misreading friendly signals as danger, which can cause us to "learn" chronic pain over time.
• Neural pathways can create pain that becomes chronic. Your emotions or trauma can create physical pain in your body. If you are not healing, you may have moved into chronic pain. Your brain is misreading chronic signals as bad and perpetuating pain.
• Neuroplastic pain can be malleable. It can be changed. So how can we train our brain to feel safe?
• You are worth healing. If you're lying in your bed in pain, you're not able to share your gifts, and we need you!

You can heal. And you can become Brilliantly Resilient. Let's be Brilliantly Resilient together!

XO,

Mary Fran