Your brain may have becomes so good at producing pain that it doesn’t stop even after you have recovered from an injury or illness.

Do not avoid movement. Start low and slow, and you can gradually get back to moving and doing more, even with some soreness.

Stress and pain are closely related. Focus on reducing stress. Focus on how you react to stress. You will likely find that as your stress reduces, so does your pain.

You can change your pain, but it is a process. Be patient with yourself.

You probably cannot get rid of all of your pain. Most adults have some pain. You can however limit how much that pain interferes with life

Work towards little goals. If you were only able to walk for a couple of blocks before, work towards walking 3 blocks. When you do, celebrate! Most people with chronic pain notice that once they are doing more their pain doesn’t bother them as much. Whether or not your pain changes, at least you will be able to do more of the things that are important to you, and that is worth working on.

Concentrate on the little goals to prevent being overwhelmed by the enormity of processing the whole pain experience all at once. Appreciate your progress. Of course, we want to strive for full function and no pain, but we need to acknowledge that any progress in that direction is helpful. Better is better, even if it isn’t ideal. Small wins help build the foundation of confidence and hope needed to tackle larger goals.

Goal: to participate in those meaningful daily activities that contribute to quality of life.

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