Pain traps us. It makes our lives smaller and can stop us from engaging fully with our people, our work and the things that we love to do. Professional athletes are people who are very used to pain. They come to accept it as part of their training and their progress. Below are ten cognitive coping strategies that athletes often use. I have turned them into the acronym CAGED BIRDS.
Control. What can we control in this situation? What can we apply? What can we eat or drink ? What one exercise can we do? Whatever we can control, we need to focus on that. Choosing how we experience pain helps to reduce it.
Agency. When we own the pain we take away the power it draws from our fear. If we speak to our pain what will it tell us? What is our reply to this? An affirmation that increases our sense of agency is: “I feel pain right now but I won’t feel pain in the future.”
Goals. Setting timers and alarms helps us to pace ourselves and aim for incremental improvements. Achieving our small goals helps us to see that though pain is a part of our life, it doesn’t stop us from living.
Examine. Before we can change our pain we need to face it. When we study what the sensation that we are feeling is, we might decide that we are feeling hot, sharp, a vibration, or a pulling, instead of pain. Even if it really is painful we can break the sensation into a multitude of feelings, of which pain is only one element.
Distract.When we give ourselves challenges that take up mental space we diminish our discomfort. When we play a game, take a walk, watch a movie, or contact a friend we don’t allow pain to take charge.
Breathe. People in pain often breathe high in their chests and hold their breath. It is important that we take time to notice our breath and to slow our breathing. The calmer and fuller our breathing is the more relaxed our nervous system is.
Instruct. Pain can be a useful guide. What is it telling us? Is it in the same place? Is it stronger than before? How does it compare to yesterday, last week, last year? What triggers pain? What relieves it? Keep a pain diary. We should know these things about ourselves.
Reframe. Pain often brings catastrophic thoughts to mind. It is important to identify these negative thoughts, determine whether they are rational and replace them with balanced thoughts. Can anything positive be taken from this episode? Perhaps it is an appreciation of our health. Perhaps it is a nudge towards healthier behaviours. This is not an easy exercise but if it reduces our fear then it will calm our nervous system.
Direct. When we speak to ourselves like a coach would: “you’re doing great, you can do this, I believe in you” our responding thoughts reassure our nervous system that we are safe, this dials down our pain.
Safe. A ship is safe in harbour but it is designed to be at sea. Yes pain is a protective mechanism. However, when we have persistent pain our alarm system is over sensitised. We cannot let it always dictate our lives. Instead we need to nudge the limits of our comfort zone.
Though we might think that they are bananas, runners with their “pain caves” and sports people with their injuries and incredible physical challenges, teach us. Their practiced approach to pain management shows us that we have lots of tools at our disposal. Yes, we can use our physical props and we can take medication, but it’s worth trying some cognitive strategies too.
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