Jen's Story

09/05/18 • 26 min

Where don’t we feel the impact of stress? It can affect the body, mind, our sleep, appetite, relationships, etc., creating a complicated (and sometimes painful) web of causes and effects. By the time we’re forced to address pain, it can be tough to identify what the underlying trigger was.

Join Dr. Liou, in this lighthearted conversation with Jen about workplace stress and pain, while they take a winding path through the topics of stretching, pain medicine, biorhythms, and depression. Jen discusses her transitioning career from teacher to principal to real estate broker and the unexpected physical changes that came with each new role. Jen shares how revelatory it was to have someone else ask the right questions about her pain, which led to constructive and practical changes in her daily routine.

Who do you talk to for help uncovering and addressing the roots of your stress and pain?

Key Points from this Episode:

Mechanical and environmental stressors in the workplace.
The value of conversation in treatment to connect the dots and set a productive course of recovery.
Safe and productive stretching through muscle activation.
Understanding the role of over-the-counter Nonsteroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs) for pain relief.
The unexpected and unpredictable benefits that can arise after removing stress.
Schedules that adapt to your natural biorhythms.
Biorhythms and depression: the importance of finding successful motivators to avoid the cycle of depression and fatigue when the system is neuro-biochemically compromised.
Appropriate responses to pain or stress are as unique as the individual feeling them.

Links :

Jen Jarta Real Estate - https://jjarta.kw.com/

NSAIDS and healing - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3764618/

NSAIDS and GI health - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3890944/

NSAIDS and cardiovascular health - https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/879811#vp_1

On Stretching - http://stopeverydaypain.com/2014/06/22/stretching-pain-feels-good-good/

Music From This Episode

Eric and Magill — https://ericandmagill.bandcamp.com/

Samuel Vas-Y - https://samyel.bandcamp.com/

Everyday Pain Forum – https://www.facebook.com/everydaypainguide/

Everyday Pain – http://stopeverydaypain.com/

Everyday Pain Twitter – https://twitter.com/noeverydaypain

Who do you talk to for help uncovering and addressing the roots of your stress and pain?

Key Points from this Episode:

Mechanical and environmental stressors in the workplace.
The value of conversation in treatment to connect the dots and set a productive course of recovery.
Safe and productive stretching through muscle activation.
Understanding the role of over-the-counter Nonsteroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs) for pain relief.
The unexpected and unpredictable benefits that can arise after removing stress.
Schedules that adapt to your natural biorhythms.
Biorhythms and depression: the importance of finding successful motivators to avoid the cycle of depression and fatigue when the system is neuro-biochemically compromised.
Appropriate responses to pain or stress are as unique as the individual feeling them.

Links :

Jen Jarta Real Estate - https://jjarta.kw.com/

NSAIDS and healing - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3764618/

NSAIDS and GI health - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3890944/

NSAIDS and cardiovascular health - https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/879811#vp_1

On Stretching - http://stopeverydaypain.com/2014/06/22/stretching-pain-feels-good-good/

Music From This Episode

Eric and Magill — https://ericandmagill.bandcamp.com/

Samuel Vas-Y - https://samyel.bandcamp.com/

Everyday Pain Forum – https://www.facebook.com/everydaypainguide/

Everyday Pain – http://stopeverydaypain.com/

Everyday Pain Twitter – https://twitter.com/noeverydaypain

Previous Episode

A Quick Hello

A few thoughts before show launch...

Next Episode

Steve's Story

When we feel pain, it can be almost impossible to take our minds off of it. But how we think about our pain and the language we use to talk about it can be extremely influential in how we experience and try to resolve it. After all, our physical bodies have a way of reflecting our psychological and emotional processes.

This week’s guest, Steve, a writer and educator (among other previous careers), opens up about his chronic “standard low back thing,” but when he first experienced severe symptoms of back pain, he describes thinking he had "broken" his back and refers to feeling "disabled" during that time. In this episode, follow along with Steve’s transformation from then to now, where he strives to mentally respond to recurrences of pain with calm mindfulness, situational awareness, and practical solutions rather than letting his pain or his thoughts about it define him.

Key Points from this Episode:

Reevaluating whether we have to accept familiar, “standard” pain as part of our lives
Optimizing our bodies’ self-repairing functions
Combating low back pain through core stability and strength, which is more complex than simply “working the abs”
Introducing Robin McKenzie’s system of diagnosis and treatment for specific lower back pain at the spinal level
Stressing our bodies during air travel through both mechanical strain and biochemical disruptions (rest, nutrition, hydration)
Fulfilling work can still involve physical tolls that may become intolerable
Exploring Parker Palmer’s undivided life philosophy
Comparing longer-term “balance” versus the best (and mutable) “mix” in the moment
Pain tolerance
Appreciating the role of language in the experience of pain
Understanding different pain-coping personality types
Checking in with yourself and learning what to pay attention to through mindfulness and self-knowledge