# Emotions ##### Untangling Pain ---  --- ## tl;dr **Emotions and pain** - Positive emotions reduce pain; negative emotions increase it - Chronic pain is linked to more negative moods and fewer positive ones - You’re in pain → of course your mood drops **Pain focus and alarm systems** - Chronic pain increases focus on pain cues, which worsens pain - Thinking more about pain reinforces the danger belief - More focus = more fire alarms = more sensitivity **Shifting attention** - We need to shift focus away from pain - It’s hard, but we have to reinforce that we’re safe - Distract yourself, focus elsewhere **Gratitude vs pain diaries** - Pain diaries can reinforce fear and hopelessness - Gratitude or glimmer diaries focus on the good stuff - Glimmers are tiny joys → sun, birds, coffee - Glimmers = SIMs - Pain diaries = DIMs **Boosting positivity** - We want more positive emotions - Gratitude or glimmer diaries are one way to do this --- ## Transcript Onto emotions. Now, emotions, believe it or not, they can significantly influence our pain perception and processing. Research has found that positive emotions tend to reduce pain, whereas negative emotions let's pretty much increase it. Another thing that has been found is that those with chronic pain, they experience increased negative moods and decreased positive moods during pain episodes. Now again, no shit right? You're in pain, so of course your moods are going to drop. You're not going to be all sunshine and rainbows. But what I found interesting in one particular study was that they also found that individuals with chronic pain, they are more focused on pain related cues, which can then worsen their pain. What this means is that they are thinking about their pain more, which if we go back to the danger alarm system, when we think more about our pain, this reinforces that belief that we are in danger and that we need protecting. And so the more sensitive we become. So if you remember about the fire alarms, our body starts to think, we need more fire alarms in that one area. Let's put more in because we're thinking about it. It must be a danger to us. So let's stick more in. Now with regards to what you can do about this. The first thing is that we need to take our focus away from the pain. Now I know this can be really difficult to do and trust me I do know how difficult this is. But our job is to keep reinforcing that we are safe, that our body is safe. And so we need to distract ourselves to focus on something other than our pain. This is something that I found with clients over the years. Originally I would use a pain diary to figure out when pain would come and what might cause it or influence it. So many other therapists do the same and I've seen doctors prescribe the same for their patients as well. So they're trying to figure out, using the pain diary, what causes or influences pain and when the pain comes. But again, I found that this just reinforces that fear and that feeling of hopelessness. And so instead I would ask some of my clients to keep a gratitude diary. So rather than focusing on their pain, we're going to focus on the good stuff. We're going to keep a gratitude diary or a happy things diary or a word I particularly love is a glimmer. So a glimmer is the opposite of a trigger and a glimmer is something that makes you feel good and you know it might come in the form of feeling maybe the sun on your face or hearing the birds sing in the morning or smelling the fresh coffee or all of these things you know and it's the things that bring you joy and the things that just make you feel good and again they don't have to be massive we're looking at glimmers they're little tiny things and all these things they are focusing on the SIMs, the focusing on that safety in me. Whereas keeping a pain diary just keeps reinforcing those DIMs. So when it comes to emotions, we really want to encourage those positive emotions so much more. And there are ways that we can actually do this. And again, keeping a gratitude diary or a glimmer diary is just one way that we can do this. --- Next lesson → [[Untangling Pain – Module 2 Lesson 09|next lesson]] %% - [[Emotions can significantly influence our pain perception and processing]] - [[Individuals with chronic pain are more focused on pain-related cues, which can then worsen their pain]] - [[we need to shift our focus away from pain]] - [[Pain Diaries vs Gratitude Diaries]] - [[Encouraging Positive Emotions when it comes to pain]]