The key to creating a positive relationship with your pain is finding balance between avoidance and persistence. This involves changing how you relate to your pain, mainly through acceptance. Accepting that pain is a part of your life for now, but not giving up on a pain-free future, can help you avoid the extremes of avoidance and persistence relationships.
Pacing is a concept used in pain management to help you reintroduce activity into your life in a sustainable way. It is an effective approach to activate neuroplasticity – the process by which the brain learns and alters its capabilities – to actively change how your brain interprets pain.
There are four key principles of pacing that can assist you in managing chronic pain more effectively.
