How to Reduce Chronic Pain Naturally With Movement and Nutrition

You know, if we're looking at an older definition, it would be an act of war or an act of violence. Obviously, that's not going to be an over-response. That's going to be something that's, that's a huge shock to the body that, that also might not be fully processed. So, but then there's, there are other kinds of traumas that would be, you know, that wasn't, that wasn't really part of the definition of trauma until the 1990s. So we're going to call that newer, even though it's been around for all of human history, where we have experienced that we haven't processed. And so we, we take over responses to situations that actually may not apply. So an example of that is perhaps you were told as a child, either consciously or subconsciously, that you couldn't emote or you couldn't be yourself. Then you grow up and you kind of carry that same behavior into a different environment with different people.

Hello and welcome to Beyond Diagnosis, a podcast to raise your awareness, decisions, and voice for alternative practices so you can take back control of your health. I'm Rita De Michele, your host, a mindset and empowerment coach, and the founder of the Onus platform. Join me each week so you can create the health of your dreams. I'm really excited to share today's episode on Beyond Diagnosis. Because it's an important one for so many sufferers of pain. I did a quick Google search and 1 in 5 people equaling billions globally struggle with some form of physical pain. If that's you, then Janice Eisenman, a seasoned movement specialist who has a unique approach to pain relief and body alignment from using functional fitness, is here to talk relief. She has helped hundreds of clients achieve wellness, addressing their individual needs with stage methodology. Welcome, Janice. It's a pleasure to have you on the show.

I'm so happy to be here.

Oh, great! It is. Let's start with a little bit about you and your background.

Yeah. So, as you mentioned in that lovely introduction, I work with people who have. Pain in their body. Now, that means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. So I really am covering a range. So I'm working with people who have everything from chronic pain that's functionally caused by a sedentary lifestyle. And quite often what that really means is it's a desk-related injury where somebody will have a sore neck or a sore back or sciatica or perhaps plantar fasciitis that is probably caused by lifestyle factors. So there's a lot of that. But there's also folks who have diagnostics already who come in to see me. And I have patients who have cancer. I have a couple of stage 4 cancer patients in my clinic right now. I have people who have fibromyalgia diagnostics. I have people with connective tissue disorder diagnostics. There are Often folks who have varying types of arthritis or multiple sclerosis. So I'm kind of running the gamut of different medical diagnostics. And some of them are things that perhaps are just a mystery to the medical system, and other things are a little bit more well known. But what I'm really helping people do, if you research— I mean, a quick Google search will tell you this too. Researching any kind of pain condition, exercise is always right at the very, very, very top of the list of things that are going to be clinically helpful. There is no shortage of studies around exercise and how that actually helps people. The challenge is for most people who have chronic pain in their body, exercise doesn't feel like what they want to do. It actually sometimes feels like it's almost counterintuitive or contraindicated. And so what I'm helping people do is not only see if we can relieve some of that pain and gain more body comfort and awareness, but we're also looking to help that person create that mobility in their life and exercise within the range of what's available. And usually what happens is that that's a lot more of a broad range than they thought was ever possible.

Great. And that is the thing, isn't it? When you are in so much pain, you just don't want to exercise. How do you— how do you encourage— how someone comes to you and they may have unexplained pain that they don't know what it is, or they definitely know what it is, like you say, from a diagnosis, or it's obvious from an injury or arthritis. How do you encourage them to do that physical exercise? Because I'm sure you've got to come up with a lot of resistance Against actually doing it.

Sometimes. So what happens when somebody comes into my studio? I'm not actually a diagnostic clinician. So I do take a health history. So if there are diagnostics, I want to know about them. And I do work with people's physiotherapists or their oncologists or whoever they have on their team. But for the most part, actually, although I'm creating individualized program plans for absolutely everybody, On some level, the moment that they meet me, everybody's also the same. So we actually start right behind me. There's a Pilates machine, and I actually have people start by doing a couple of Pilates exercises. And I've chosen a series of exercises that allow us to look at movement in its purest range with the things that we do the most. So in kind of more simple terms, you're laying down and you're doing a squat with a with some weights on the Pilates machine. And for most people, it's going to really. Start to reveal how we're moving load through the body. So most of us aren't ever thinking about that. But when you sit up or you stand up or you pick something up, you're transferring load through your tissues. And so we start right there with, let's have a dialogue about what you're feeling and what I'm seeing and see where things match and see where things don't match. And then we're also looking at things like, you know, how's your core functioning? How are your hips functioning? 99% of people suddenly feel a lot more ease with their body because they're actually able to get out of what they can't do and into what they can do. So we're talking right at the beginning of, you know, what is your body awareness? What are you noticing? Are you noticing something that is maybe moving the load well and something that is not? And then we— Then from there, we start identifying pieces that could be Worked on. So a common one is people have tight hip flexors, so that the area at the front of the body is often tight, and quite often accompanying that are weak glutes. So we actually start very, very, very anatomically, and then the next step is we kind of come up with a little work plan, and often it starts at the hips. And then we're going to do what I call a therapeutic. So we're going to do a yin yoga. Or we're going to do a technique called Yamada body rolling, which is on a series of balls. And those 2 techniques are really my favorite because what we're going to do then is open up the connective tissue and open up the joint space. And so that gives people— a lot of pain is actually caused by impingements or restrictions in either the connective tissue or the joint space. And the reason I don't meet with a ton of resistance is because in 5 minutes or less, we can create a difference in the sensation. of that person's body. So after we do that, we have the same dialogue. What do you feel? Where do you feel it? And then we have them repeat one of the exercises from the very beginning, and then they notice an immediate change in the comfort and capabilities of them to do that same movement. And so it's— it kind of almost feels like a bit of a magic process for people because they're like, oh, I thought I couldn't do anything in here in 5 minutes or less. I just made a change in my body. My body feels better. And it's, it's removing that tension, that compression, and those impingements and other things that are making movement feel bad. And so I actually have a really high— you know, people go home with a home program. I like to call it homework. I've been told that people don't like that word, but people do the homework because they're like, it feels better in my body.

Mm-hmm.

And So that's, that's, that's step 1 is just, you know, coming into that body awareness and really identifying with, with a process where we could do some of that work so that you're gonna immediately feel, ah, I've got more space in my body. I feel like I can walk with more ease. There's less tension there. And, you know, it doesn't matter where you are on the fitness spectrum. You're likely to feel a sense of agency and empowerment that, especially if you've had chronic pain or diagnostic, that you might not have felt for a very long time.

Yeah, it sounds like such a holistic approach, like it encompasses a lot. If I could just circle back to the beginning of that conversation where you said, yeah, we do a combination of Pilates and was it yin yoga?

Yeah, yeah.

And ball, the big— that I assume that's the big balls that most people familiar with.

Actually, they're small. So this is, this is an example of what it looks like. So it's like the size of my head, basically. So it's not— they're not huge. Yeah, yeah, they're actually fairly small.

I'm sure a lot of people know, but I'm sure there's listeners here that aren't as familiar. Can you just talk a little bit to the process that you take them through, like say with Pilates? Like, what is Pilates and what is that process so they can get it? And the yoga and that combination so they can make a mental note in their mind, like, I've got this pain and I'm hearing Janice speak that she's giving people relief, but I'm a bit nervous about this Pilates because I don't know anything about it.

Yes. Well, luckily for your listeners, if they're in Australia, Australian Pilates instructors are quite globally well known for the excellence of the training that happens in Australia. So it is— it's often an adjunct treatment to something like a physiotherapy or another medical pursuit, as opposed to strictly fitness, which it is more in that direction in other parts of the world. So Australians can be a little less nervous already because the quality of your instructors is globally known for the kind of training. But fundamentally, Pilates is what we would call a functional movement. So what that really means is we're not concerned with what the movement, quote unquote, looks like. We're concerned with what is actually doing the movement and where you're feeling the movement. And so in that sense, we already have taken you out of that gym mentality of moving where you have to look a certain way and you're in front of the mirrors and all of that and into let's feel where the movement is. What do you feel activating? What do you feel doing the movement? But the reason that I really love it is because it's really about this stability around the joint. So we have the big muscles that most of us are familiar with, the quads on the front of your leg, the glutes on the back of your leg. Those are, those are really mobility muscle groups where they're going to, they're going to actually make you move. The stability muscles are the ones that often don't get attention, especially in kind of our more broad fitness world, where it's, it's really around the joints. It's how you and I are sitting up right now. We have stabilizers in our, around our pelvis and around our shoulders that are helping us to actually stay upright and to fight against gravity. And so we're really working on the muscles around the joints to give them the appropriate amounts of tension, the appropriate amounts of compression, the appropriate amounts of flexibility. And that tends to open up your joint space. And it makes even those global mobilizers function better. So that's the secret underneath Pilates' hood. It is quite parallel in a lot of ways to a physio. therapy, but it tends to be a little bit more fun. And it does run the gamut from people that are sedentary and maybe can only even do it in a chair or on the floor to really, really athletic. If I wanted to train somebody who was in the Cirque du Soleil, I could do that. So that's one of the nice things about it is that we can take it— we can meet the person really where they're at, and we can keep increasing those levels.

Right. I know you touched on it a little bit with, you know, saying about Pilates and yoga, but if someone wanted to come and book in with you, what is what you call your stage methodology process? Can you speak to a little bit of what is that process like? Someone comes in and they think, okay, I've got this pain, I don't want it anymore, or I want to be able to manage it, or I want less pain. What is that? What is that process? What's that journey look like?

You're asking me the best question ever because I haven't, I haven't created a name for it. But essentially, I mean, what I always tell all of my clients, we don't build strength on top of pain, period. So we have to kind of open up the tissues and remove some of that pain, reduce the pain. By elongating the tissues, by hydrating the tissues. And that's where those techniques are that are that we've already mentioned. So your yin yoga, that's going to hydrate your tissues and elongate your connective tissue. And Yamada body rolling is going to it's going to increase your joint space and take compression out of the body. So without even kind of getting much deeper than that, those are my two favorite techniques that I've ever found that are kind of universally applicable to most. People who have pain where we can make a very significant impact on that person's quality of life and on their movement by just doing those. So I tend to add pieces to it. And I'm programming. And I'm adding Pilates to it. And I'm all of that stuff. But there's a ton of resources available on just those 2 techniques. Probably wherever you are, you can find videos. You can find instructors. You can do Zoom classes, things like that. Um, and that will already cut out a bunch of the pain that you're having because of the qualities of that work.

Interesting. And I'm sure that's quite reassuring for many. Here's— this may be a curveball question, I'm not sure.

Yeah, love a curveball question.

I was just thinking, if someone comes to you and they have been prescribed pain medication For example, and they're on heavy painkillers and it's kind of numbed their awareness to their body. How do you, how do you help someone and not overstretch or not take them too far because they're not actually in tune with their body if the medication is numbing? Yeah.

No, I actually, I agree with that. So that's, that's an example of a person who would do better with someone like myself who can actually observe what's happening. Because I would— whether somebody's on painkillers or not, I actually do have clients that actually literally have very low to almost nonexistent body awareness. So I can say, what do you feel? And like, they, they don't. And that can be, that can be due to Drugs and medication that can be due to previous traumas that can be due to just there is a there is a human variation in how much we are aware of our body and how much we can articulate it. So the dialogue kind of looks like ah, I don't need to be right, but what I see is that when you when you straighten your legs, your pelvis tips. Can you feel that? And if the person says no, I'm not gonna say okay well then we can't really you know I just I just say okay well that you know that's interesting. And then often what I will do is use a prop or a kinesthetic cue where I touch them, or I have a prop touch them, and then we see if we can actually feel like— so for example, if somebody is laying on their back and they're straightening their legs on a Pilates machine, I might have them lift their bum and put a piece of foam underneath the back of their pelvis to see if they can actually feel that pressure. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. And then I'll, then I'll actually switch to something else that's similar if they can't feel it. So again, that's where a practiced practitioner— I mean, I've, I've been doing this for almost 20 years. I, I can try different props or try something different. I have actually little mini sessions that I call— well, they're full sessions, but little Parts of my sessions that I'll call workshopping something. So I'll go over to the skeleton and talk through the anatomy. Sometimes it just is literally an intellectual connection. I will tell the person in advance, we're going to figure out how to, how to actually get that sensation or get that activation in your body. And we might try 6 or 8 different things. And because they know in advance, we're going to, we're going to kind of— Circle the wagons here until we can, until we can actually find that successful piece. They're really patient with it, and then it just feels like such a victory. But what I do with that piece of information then is build on that, because if we can get something to our cognitive attention, or if we can get a muscle to fire in one way, we can do it in other ways. But Essentially, what'll happen is you know I've had people that we have to try six or eight different things. Then I'm going to have them go home and practice that and see if they can kind of tune in. So we just start with where they're at, and I've never had somebody who can't develop an advancement in it. It's not like a year later we're still stuck in the same place. It be that their awareness. takes a little bit more practice to develop, or their vocabulary takes a little bit more practice to develop. But we, we don't kind of force the issue, or I don't stop working with them. We just, we just start applying the tool and having them— maybe that's their homework for that week, is to go home and feel that peace that we, that we successfully found. I've definitely done that before.

It sounds like you develop Um, a lot of self-awareness in people through this program.

Yes.

Through working with their bodies, they get in touch and they start becoming a little bit more aware of themselves in, you know, sometimes in time and space. Where are they and how do they manage that pain? Um, my next question is around— so we don't leave anyone out, it's like pain is so huge for so many people in so many areas of their body. If someone came to you and said, I've got so much pain in my head, yeah, would you still treat them? Even though you seem to feel, uh, deal with the physicality, would you still treat them if they have pain in the head? Because we all know the body connection. Can you speak a little bit? So someone who's got migraines or someone who's just got so much pain that they feel encouraged to come and see someone like you?

Absolutely. So, um, I love the question about migraines. So I live in the migraine capital of the world, so I, I regularly have clients who have migraine. Um, is there a reason for that? Right. Um, I'm like, yeah, they— yeah, it's our, it's our climate, actually. Um, so we live— this city that I live in is right next to mountains, and so we'll get Winds that come over the mountains that just change the air pressure like this. And so we call it a chinook, where the temperature might go up 20 degrees in 2 hours, and people just— ah, it just goes straight into their head. So there is nothing I can do to take away, quote unquote, a migraine. So I am not going to be able to do something that is like taking an Advil or taking another drug that just instantaneously removes it. But I often will have students that come and do yin with me when they have a migraine, and they end up feeling better. And the reason that they feel better is because we're able to— first of all, when you have a migraine, you have an incredible amount of pressure in your head. So I'll always do something at their pelvis, sometimes at their feet. We try to get some of that energy and that heaviness down to the—

Down.

Down lower in their body so that it's not all just sitting in their head. The other thing that migraines will do is create an incredible amount of muscular tension, often in the jaw. People will clench their jaw. They'll furrow their brow. And we almost never think about the fact that we have muscles in our head. The Yamana body rolling work actually has face balls so we can roll through every muscle in your face, in your jaw, in your neck. So I will typically program that by starting in the pelvis, getting somebody kind of grounded down into their pelvis. We'll do some work up on the chest, maybe the side of the body, and then come up into the face and the neck. And typically what'll happen— again, they're not going to leave here and say, I'm free of migraines.

Yeah.

It's over. But they will have more awareness, a little bit more mental capacity. The muscular tension from the actual migraine itself is gone, and they'll typically be just a little bit more energetically grounded. Um, and so again, I think that's going to fit into the category of we're not creating that miracle, but it does give somebody a pathway to do something different, to have agency over their body, to have some agency over that experience where you're not just like, oh no, here comes another migraine. I can't do anything. This is ruined. Where you know that you can come and do some gentle movement. That is not going to be cardiovascular or aerobic exercise at that point. We can cover up your eyes. We can make those modifications. But just where you feel— because there are people who get migraines that last for a week. And so we can work on some techniques to help give more peace, I would say, to that, to that process when it is in process.

Great. I think a lot of people obviously aware of how stress affects your body. You know, you have the stiffness, sore neck, you know, all the rest of it. You have the upset stomach. You know, that stress is well known. But reading about you, I read that you deal with trauma, the trauma in this.

I do.

And I think that's an area that maybe people don't realize, that people think trauma has to be this huge event that's happened in their life, but trauma can actually be something quite subtle that's happened that subconsciously you don't realize has gone in, and now you're feeling the physical effects of it. Can you talk about that trauma and how it's stored in the body and how then it's expressed in—

Yes, yes, yes, absolutely. So trauma is, um, quite often relational, and animals are humans— I'm sorry, humans are animals.

That—

I said that backwards. Humans are animals. So what we do is we have We have huge prediction capacities to our brain where we're reading all of these inputs from people and the environment and everything around us. And just like an animal, a cat or a dog or a horse or what have you, we're gonna have an automatic response to things that we think are dangerous. And so a trauma is something that our body actually ends up over-responding to fundamentally. So Some of the, you know, if we're looking at an older definition, it would be an act of war or an act of violence. Obviously, that's not going to be an over-response. That's going to be something that's, that's a huge shock to the body that, that also might not be fully processed. So, but then there's, there are other kinds of traumas that would be, you know, that wasn't, that wasn't really part of the definition of trauma until the 1990s. So we're going to call that newer, even though it's been around for all of human history, where we have experiences that we haven't processed. And so we, we take over responses to situations that actually may not apply. So an example of that is perhaps you were told as a child, either consciously or subconsciously, that you couldn't emote. or you couldn't be yourself, then you grow up and you kind of carry that same behavior into a different environment with different people, but you still have the same response because of the prediction capacity. So what will actually happen is that our tissues and our soma, our body, will carry that with us. So the best example of that that we're kind of really familiar with is if you look at a cat right before it hisses, its back arches, the hairs stand up on its neck. It has a full body response. Same thing with a dog. You can just watch a dog's ears and you kind of know what's going on emotionally for the dog. We're the same. So we don't like to think of ourselves as animals, but we really are. So we have— we're having these responses all day long to things, and often we have experiences from years ago that we're using to inform what's happening around us. So somebody might use a certain tone of voice in the office, and you kind of have that startle response, or you, or you have a huge emotional response to it. But because it's old information, you just kind of keep going about your thing. So I often— I mean, the reason that I started incorporating that into my work is because what I really noticed, um, is that when I'm one-on-one in a room with somebody and we start releasing that pain and we start doing that therapeutic work, Out would come kind of, you know, and it doesn't happen the first session, but the deeper we get into the body, the more likely it was that somebody would say, start telling me about these really challenging circumstances in their life. And some of them were very present. Many of them were not. They were things that were very old material. So it's like beach balls that are coming up once we move the rock. that were holding them down. And so, you know, the, the body still has that memory of being the cat with its arched back. So we're not, we're not, quote unquote, storing it in the way that we have a little pirate's chest that we can kind of open up and find the trauma gold. But we're storing it in the sense that everything that our bodies are doing are reflexively trained from another point in our life where We're like, ah, this is how I do this movement. This is how I respond to this. So, you know, we can, we can think about, we all know this one, but if you feel a little anxiety, you get those butterflies in your stomach. So what's actually physically happening is your intestines are kind of tightening up. You have a nervous system response to that. So we know what that feels like, but there's, if you actually really pay attention, you're having these things 1,000 times a day about 1,000 different things. And so it's— it really does drag back to kind of some of that body awareness. But I'm incorporating it into my work because not everybody with pain has trauma, but everybody with trauma will end up with some kind of pain. So—

Interesting.

Not all pain is caused by trauma, but all trauma will cause pain. And then it depends on how that pain manifests. So some people end up with chronic health conditions. Some people literally feel physical pain. That's where things like our fibromyalgia diagnostics or some of those more chronic pain diagnostics. Some of, some of your listeners might have had the experience of you go to the doctor and they say, well, you know, it's, it's not in your head. It is actually real, but it's, it's psychosomatic. So there is that, that connection. And that's really challenging for people because it is very real. They do feel heightened senses of pain, but the body's really— it's kind of a— it's responding highly to the circumstances around it. So we're not going to treat that any differently than anything that you and I have talked about here. It really drives back to body awareness, body movement, but also we're definitely adding in the, the expression of it and the safety element of we can say this out loud, we can have a new experience, we can create a different experience of your body where we can speak about these things and be in a place where your muscles are still open and you're still calm and you're not feeling that same tension. And then we start to re-pattern how the body is taking in some of these circumstances.

That is really interesting because a lot of people wouldn't make that connection that their trauma or their emotions or their thoughts are causing that tension, like you were saying, that tension in their muscles, and then it's expressing itself as pain. And like, fibromyalgia is huge. I mean, it seems to be increasing significantly.

Definitely.

Do you— I know you're not diagnostic, but do you feel that it's the patients that you see with fibro, that a lot of it has that emotional element to it?

Like, you know, I think, I think it's a very rare experience that I have somebody who has no emotional element to why they're, why they're seeing me. Um, I think it's— it— all of these things are on the rise because we are living In a way that's more and more connected from authentic human experiences, and our biology just isn't keeping up to the pace. So most of us are, you know, we, we're rarely in nature, we are eating a lot of processed foods, we often have very few actual authentic connections with people. And so our nervous systems are just running amok and trying to Our bodies will actually fundamentally do whatever we we force it to do, but it's at what cost or what you know what's where does it pay for it? And some people's bodies pay for it through pain conditions. Some people's bodies pay for it by having diabetes or heart disease or cancers or things like that. And you don't get to choose that unfortunately. And so for a lot of people, even just having that experience of having My studio is intentionally set up so that you're the only person in it. So I'm not in a clinic, there's nobody else in the space. So just having that space where they're— it's, it's just me and they can have a connection. And that goes a long ways towards people's having a changed experience, especially when it comes to their body. Because quite often when I get somebody who has had that diagnostic of fibromyalgia or connective tissue disorder, they've really gone through the wringer with the medical system. And, you know, there's statistics that show things like fibromyalgia and endometriosis, they take 7 to 15 years to even diagnose. And in the meantime, the person is often being told, well, it's in your head, or you're crazy. And so they, they quite often— I'll get people in who are very frustrated and have kind of been to every kind of practitioner and met with no success. So I'm not going to be somebody who's saying to them, well, you know, it's probably trauma, but that will naturally bubble up. And then I have that certification, those qualifications to, to walk that person into a different part of the process if they would like to.

Brilliant, brilliant. That actually gives people a lot of hope, doesn't it? Because yeah, the last thing you want to hear when you're in so much pain is that it's in your head, you know?

Absolutely, because it's not. It is actually— it's real. And so I think we can't mistake the connection between your, your psychology and your soma. I mean, that's, that's where that word psychosomatic comes from. We can't mistake it for not being real. You are literally experiencing pain. That is, your body is throwing you signals of, this is not safe, do not proceed, no. But the problem is that, you know, something like a fibromyalgia or a connective tissue disorder that causes pain all the time, what choice does the person have? They need to function. So the, you know, for most of us, if we're kind of getting a no signal, we can stop doing what we're doing.

Yeah.

So that's going to be your acute pain where if you drop something on your foot, you're going to feel that and you're going to get the signal like, don't do that again, and you're not going to do it again. The problem with chronic pain is you have to keep going. And so sometimes there are lifestyle adjustments that actually are very, very helpful. So, you know, it's the old— it's so annoying, but like reduce your stress and eat whole foods and get your sleep. Those can help. But then there is a component that is, how do we, how do we just start to dial some of the body's response system down? And that, that's where some of that trauma work really comes in, because the person's nervous system is having a heightened response to literally everything around.

Excellent. That's so informative, Janice. What I would love is if you could leave our listeners with what are your 3 simple stretches or exercises that someone can do at home where you know that they're not going to overextend or hurt themselves, just to give a little bit more movement or relief from pain?

Yeah, so I would, I would draw from the world of yin yoga because it's a functional approach where We're focused on what it feels like and not what it looks like. And so yin is going to be done on the floor or against a wall. So you're, you're on a supported surface. There's no balancing. There's no kind of overdoing it. And the, the properties of yin are really going to take hold when you're in a position for a minute and a half or longer. So we're trying to stretch out your connective tissue. So I would start with 2 to 3 minutes. So the first one is gonna be a glute stretch. So you bend the front leg forward. The back leg can either be straight out back behind you or bent. And then you wanna bring your body forward to whatever range where you can feel a stretch in your bum. So that one is sometimes known as a pigeon in kind of a more popular yoga icon language. But It has a different name in yin because we don't want you to take the shape that you might see on the internet. So that the idea is you're gonna feel a stretch in the glute, and you're gonna hold that for a minute and a half to 2 minutes without moving. So that's the first one that I really love, because a lot of people have a lot of tension in their, in their bum. The second one is gonna look like a cobra. So you're gonna lay on your stomach, and your hands can be beside you, and then you just Press off the floor slightly, and the focus of this is going to be the low back. Now this can be a little bit emotionally unearthing sometimes because if somebody has low back pain, it can feel like the low back pain. So it actually is a compression at the back. I love this one for two reasons. One is because we want to get our back capable of carrying load, and we tend to lose that low back curve as we age. But the second is actually because compression is part of flexibility. So we often think of flexibility, stretch out, but we rarely think the tissue has to come back. So when you're moving, and if you're watching this on video, I'm moving my arms right now. They're going both directions. So it isn't just a let's stretch it out. It actually comes back in as well. So the idea that compression is part of flexibility is a totally forward. And brand new concept to a lot of people. So I love that one because we get to feel that sensation of what does it feel like when I compress the tissues? That's every bit as important as stretching them out. And then the third one that I would recommend that I love is called the half saddle. So you basically sit with your knee bent and your foot is by your bum, and then you start to bring your body backwards. You can do this against a wall. Put a bolster behind you or just come down to the floor. But basically, you want to feel a stretch at your quad. So right in the front of your leg, your leg can lift off the floor if you want. The angle of your foot and your knee doesn't matter. So as long as you're not feeling any knee pain, you're good to go.

Mm-hmm.

So a lot of people carry a lot of tension through the front part of their body as well. And again, you're going to hold that for a minute and a half. It doesn't matter what it looks like. You want to focus on the sensation. And so those are 3 exercises that are— they're quite safe. You can do them on the floor, you can modify them, you don't need any props. You can certainly use props, but you don't need tools, you don't need anything kind of fancy. And the whole idea is that you're going to feel a sensation that's about 50% of your maximum sensation. You're not going to worry about what it looks like. So if you do look up these postures on the internet, that it's a guideline example of what it could look like. But the idea is that you start to really tune into where do I feel the sensation and what do I feel, and making sure that you're staying within that kind of 50 to 60% of your maximum range. Because if you're going over top of that, that's where you might want to check in with a practitioner or a teacher.

Right. Thank you so much, Janice, for giving people with chronic pain and pain so much hope that there is some relief, that they can book in with someone like you and know that there are strategies for them.

Absolutely, definitely, definitely.

Absolutely. It's been such a pleasure having you on the show, and if anybody wants to know more about Janice, uh, her details are going to be in the show notes, so please connect with her.

Absolutely. It's been such a pleasure talking to you.

It's been such a pleasure. Thank you so much for coming on the show. I would love to know what was the biggest insight or aha moment you got from this interview so you can now speak up, take action, and make informed decisions for your health. And if you like this episode, get instant access to your free ebook, Alternative Wisdom: Taking Back Control of Your Health, at life-onus.com.