How to be OK when you’re NOT OK. 🧠 (Part 4/4)

20 Mar 2026 · 2 min

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1:52

In this personal monologue, the speaker shares a set of practical strategies they use during acute trigeminal neuralgia flare‑ups when jaw movement is limited. They describe adopting a temporary liquid diet—protein shakes, electrolyte‑enhanced water, tea, and vegetable soup—to maintain nutrition while minimizing chewing. To soothe facial pain they apply warm compresses and listen to calming music tuned to 528 Hz. They also employ cognitive techniques, reminding themselves that the pain is temporary and using temporal reframing to counter the brain’s tendency to view pain as permanent. The speaker acknowledges that flare‑ups can be triggered by barometric pressure changes or stress, expresses empathy for others with chronic or episodic pain, and invites viewers to share additional coping ideas.

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So I can't open my mouth, right? So I was like, oh, look, that liquid detox eating plan I've always been wanting to try. So it's pretty much a liquid diet, and I'm getting nutrients, drinking protein shakes. I'm having my tea. I have electrolytes in my water. I made some soup with some vegetables, so I'm getting the nutrients that I need. I'm not moving as much, so maybe I don't need more nutrients. So yay, liquid diet. And hopefully I'll be able to open my jaw tomorrow or the next day. But the difference is I'm not going to freak out about it. I won't let myself be upset by the pain because the pain is hard enough as it is. What else worked for me? Warm compresses on my face, calming music, music that was set to 528 megahertz playing in the background so that I wasn't always thinking the voice in my head Pain, pain, pain, pain. Also, making myself aware that this is temporary. This is not forever. And that's the temporal part of our brain that starts believing everything is forever. How long is this going to last? This is going to be forever. Oh my God, I can't take it. Well, the truth is it won't be forever. It will change. It will get different. I don't know when, but it will get different. And the more that I can calm my system, the sooner this stuff can move through my body. I hope that this helps someone else out there in pain. If you deal with trigeminal neuralgia and it's something that you've got full-time versus my flares when the barometric pressure rises or I'm stressed and it's the perfect storm, my heart goes out to you. Hopefully some of these ideas will help. If you've got other ideas that help when you've got pain or chronic pain or bouts of pain, I'd love to know more. Thank you so much.