FLINKING  is a combination of the words feeling and thinking. It is possible that as we learn to feel and think our way through pain, we establish a different relationship with pain, maybe even get rid of it!

 

The latest neuroscience tells us that our brain is constantly scanning our experiences and will determine an alarm should be sent to the brain. To be more specific, an event occurs that may cause pain, or cause the brain to anticipate pain, the brain notices this and scans our “history files” stored in our nervous system. For example our brains instantly scan for a history of pain in the area, how much pain, for any past trauma associated with the situation or any trauma in general and if so the brain will activate an alarm mechanism. All of this happens without our conscious awareness in a split second.

If the alarm mechanism is activated then our brain activates neural pathways or messenger highways so that we feel pain. So the brain is not only the messenger but it is deciding if something is painful based on each person’a unique history.

 Interestingly the danger alarm mechanism is more sensitive in people with a history of trauma be that childhood trauma, medical trauma or other significant emotional events. Further, for individuals with a strong history of pain or severe pain the more likely that the pain itself will activate the alarm mechanism.

This neural pathway or messenger highway is sometimes activated repeatedly even unnecessarily. This leads to a vicious cycle of anticipating pain, being fearful and ultimately experiencing more pain more often. This is referred to as chronic pain.

The part of our nervous system that is repeatedly giving us this alarm message is called the autonomic nervous system. The ANS is our fight, flight or freeze response mechanism. Essentially it is hijacked, messages are being habitually sent with the intention of keeping us out of danger. The problem is danger or pain is not necessarily the truth of what is happening in that moment. The good news: it's possible to learn to  pause and to feel and think through the alert message or pain message. It is possible to consciously turn off and on the neural pathways.

One on one sessions are most effective in supporting people in learning the skills to interrupt the chronic messages of pain.

This is where FLINKING comes in!

Here is a brief overview:

First we can learn to  FEEL, that is in that moment of receiving the alarm, we can  begin  to notice how our  body is reacting. We can actually learn to notice what it feels like when the autonomic nervous system is hijacked. How fast is the heart rate/ what is the breathing pattern/ is the jaw clenched/do I feel tight or soft? etc...

With guidance, we can learn to calm down our autonomic nervous system by changing our breathing pattern, and with guidance learn where habitual muscle contracting is happening and how to change it. We can also learn to THINK our way through. We can come to understand if there is actual tissue damage or not, have a deeper understanding of the communication mechanism in our nervous system, when is this message accurate and when not  and how to navigate our way out of pain.