a prayer wheel in California? Love it. (more on this location at a later date…)
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The following is an excerpt from an article shared by one of my lovely students … thank you, thank you… seemingly like “nothing” from a dynamic movement oriented practice perspective, there’s a lot going on under the surface as in the surface of a lake … what’s under water is … anyone’s guess. Sometimes, less is more:
Why does past pain make you more sensitive to future pain? You can thank one of the great wonders of our nervous system: its ability to learn in response to experience. This ability is called neuroplasticity. Through the repeated experience of pain, the nervous system gets better at detecting threat and producing the protective pain response. So unfortunately, in the case of chronic pain, learning from experience and getting “better” at pain paradoxically means more pain, not less.
Both modern science and yoga share this idea: present pain and suffering have their roots in past pain, trauma, stress, loss, and illness. Modern science uses words like neuroplasticity to describe the process of learning from past experiences; yoga uses the word samskara. Samskaras are the memories of the body and mind that influence how we experience the present moment. Samskaras keep you stuck, feeling the same emotions, thinking the same thoughts, and even experiencing the same pain.
Samskaras do not always lead to suffering—they also lead to positive change. Just as trauma, illness, pain, and stress leave traces on the body and mind, so do positive experiences. What you practice, you become.
Learning is lifelong, and none of the changes you’ve learned have to be permanent. Neuroplasticity can be harnessed for healing. Your mind and body have learned how to “do” chronic pain, and your job is to teach it something new.
– Kelly McGonigal, PhD, excerpt from an article in Yoga International
“Restorative Yoga for Chronic Pain” dtd 6/10/2013
YES.
“What you practice, you become.”
