Day 13 Book/article

Today's prompt is what book or article so far has spoke to me the most. I think the most recent article was very helpful, Jonah Lehrer's The Psychology of Chronic Back Pain. I am a dentist, and have been trained in "western medicine." My hesitations with this treatment and diagnosis has been skepticism in "alternative" medicines that haven't been tested, etc. Learning more about the emotional aspects of pain, which I wasn't taught in school, but are based in solid science was helpful to read about. Today was a very stressful day, and I had more back and neck pain than I have had since starting this program. That, combined with the sharp knee pain from my second attempt at jogging Sunday night, with lingering knee pain yesterday felt like a setback. This article was exactly what I needed.
My main frustration so far, is a lack of a simple, clear "fix" for when my pain flares up. I try to talk to myself, but much of the time, it is when I am at work, and I am focusing on dentistry. It is hard to talk to myself while doing that. I have had intermittent success with trying to talk the pain away, by reminding myself that this isn't structural, that I need to acknowledge the emotions I am having and hiding, but consistency has been challenging. I feel like there isn't enough time to do this. It made me think about reassessing my schedule, and prioritizing some down time. Today I had 15 minutes to actually eat my lunch, and even then I was still trying to be productive at the same time.

 

Have you tried somatic tracking?
https://www.tmswiki.org/forum/threads/day-9-somatic-tracking.16532/ (New Program - Day 9: Somatic Tracking)

Not sure if you can do this while doing dentistry. But essentially it is practicing mindfulness with your symptoms. Observe them without judgment.