Exercise

Challenging thoughts: How do you make sure that thoughts help you once you know them? So that they don't make your pain even worse?

How come negative thoughts can make your pain worse? What can you do to let your thoughts help you? This week I will reflect on the role of thoughts in pain. 

One of the main pitfalls of chronic pain is that we often do too much, or too little. In short, staying within your physical limits can be difficult. Too little activity can make your condition worse, too much effort can make your body endure too much.

This week was all about sleep. You have received tips on what you can do to sleep better and to learn more about sleep. Still, sleeping well is not so obvious.

This week is all about sleep. Sleep has a huge impact on everything we do in life. It influences our emotions, stress levels and how (clear) we think. You can imagine that sleeping as well as possible in case of pain is very important. Below are several tips to improve your sleep.

Pain is not only a physical, but also an emotional thing - and making use of visualizing can influence emotions. It is very hard to have pain for a long time. It can make you insecure, gloomy and afraid of what is to come.

"Daddy, we're into an argument" - says my two-year-old son. I have just spoken to him in a strict manner. What do you do when you have a quarrel? - I ask him. Seriously looking, he answers: 'listen carefully'. 

"It's easy to get discouraged and pessimistic when you're in pain for a long time, but it doesn't help me. Are the apt words of someone I spoke yesterday and have been struggling with pain for years. 

In this blog you are going to make your recipe for pain! What is a recipe for pain? A recipe for pain is to write down exactly what it takes to get pain. I'm going to give you my example later.