What I have learned from decades of pain and dystonia
As I reflect on my 23 years (as of 2024) living with dystonia and pain and other symptoms that changed my life in many ways, I want to share...
How we can hold space for ourselves to reduce pain
In this article I am going to talk about how we can hold space for ourselves for the benefit of being more at peace and more at ease. This...
Releasing emotional pain about the past to find peace
Several years ago, I wrote about the emotional pain of “victim mentality” when faced with a health or other life challenge, because of how dramatically things may have changed...
Tips for reducing the control that anxiety has on us
If you live with anxiety of any kind, I hope this is of help to you. Anxiety and panic attacks were a big problem for me for a long...
A body in pain has a brain like a heat seeking missile
When you are in chronic pain, especially if you have multiple areas where you experience pain, your brain is like a guided missile system. In other words, it is...
How I overcame the freeze stress response after an anxious situation
If you suffer with anxiety, you know just how crippling it can be. As horrible as it is, anxiety is actually a normal, instinctive human emotion that everyone experiences...
Negative thinking is like a self-induced autoimmune disease that can make life miserable
I need to preface this article by saying that I am not equating an autoimmune disease with how we think. What I am saying is that the way we...
Be kind to your pain. It’s crying for your attention
I have lived with chronic pain from a neurological movement disorder called dystonia for over 20 years. Chronic pain does not follow any rules, and after multiple beatings, we can lose...
Understanding and improving our stress response to reduce pain and suffering
Having lived with chronic pain from dystonia for over 20 years, I spent most of that time focused on treating the physical symptoms. This has been very important and...
They Don’t Know What They Don’t Know: Learning to Manage Judgement and Criticism from Others When Living with a Chronic and Debilitating Condition
In my last blog, I talked about the difficulty being understood by others when living with a chronic health condition and the challenges that come with it. You can...
What’s the best thing we can do when we are in pain?
In a word, nothing. In two words, don’t panic. In two other words that are the same but are more positive and action oriented…be calm. Let me explain…when we...
How photography helps take my mind off my pain from dystonia
I have lived with dystonia (a neurological movement disorder) and chronic pain for over 20 years. The very active life prior to dystonia is night and day compared to...
How do we move beyond pain and suffering?
We have all at one time or another experienced pain and suffering of some kind. I sure have, living with dystonia for over 20 years, the first 5 of...
