Pain is a Protector
Pain is a Protector
Pain is a protector; it is a tool your brain uses to keep you out of harm’s way, but sometimes it makes mistakes. When it misinterprets safety as danger, it causes us to hurt or overreact in the absence of a threat.
This can be overwhelming and draining, it can steal away the vibrant light of life, and leave us miserable and sad. It can cause us to grumble and groan, asking why we hurt so much every day. This can lead to anger, frustration, anxiety, and stress, which worsen pain.
- When the brain accurately assesses a threat, it will trigger the necessary pain.
- When the brain misassesses a threat, it will create unnecessary pain.
Your Protector Isn’t Perfect
Love Your Mind & Body
When you were a child, you may have gotten angry at your parents when they disciplined you. However, if you reflect on some of those moments as an adult, I bet you are thankful for some of those punishments. You might even empathize with them, especially if you are now a parent in the same role, doing your best to raise your children the only way you know how.
When you are hurting, especially when it seems without rhyme or reason, empathize with your pain system and search for ways to better communicate with it. Ultimately, all it wants is for you to be safe, so develop strategies and patterns that show it you are.
10 Ways to Feel Safety Within
- Gentle Body Scan with Protective Language: Move your attention slowly through your body. When you notice discomfort, label it neutrally and add a protective framing: “This is my protective system trying to keep me safe.” Soften any urge to fight it and simply acknowledge the protective intent.
- Somatic Labeling as Protection: Rename intense sensations with clearer, less emotionally charged words, then add a protective meaning: “A focused heat in my shoulders, I am being asked for care and a slower pace.” This keeps the message of protection while reducing emotional amplification.
- Self-Empathy for the Protector: When pain rises, place a hand on a comfortable area and say, “I understand you are trying to protect me.” Then, ask what your body might need.
- Self Forgiveness Toward Protection: After a difficult flare, release self-blame with: “My brain protected me the best it knew how today.”
- Humility Toward Protective Limits: Acknowledge a current limit without criticism: “Today I am being asked for shorter walks to stay safe.” Choose one action that respects the somatic request.
- Sensory Safety as Evidence for the Protector: Create a short pleasant sensation. While experiencing it, quietly note “This is safe enough, you can stand down a little.” Give your brain clear evidence of safety in the present.
- Short Protective Reframe: Recall a simple pain neuroscience fact: “Pain is an output produces to protect me.” Notice to how the body responds when a protective purpose is acknowledged instead of resisted.
- Kind movement that honors Protection: Move or rest according to current capacity. While moving, label sensations and speak to the protective intent: “We are working together so you can feel safer.”
- Evening Acknowledgement of Protection: Before sleep, thank your mind and body for its efforts that day, even if their protection felt intense: “Thank you for watching over me. We are learning safety together.” End the day in an alliance rather than in conflict.
- Hand-to-Heart Listening to the Protector: Place a hand over your heart or another neutral area. Ask, “What are you protecting me from right now?” Label the sensation simply, then respond with kindness: “I hear the warning. We can find safety together.”
Pain is a Protector
Every sensation you experience is an output, meaning it is not felt in our arm or leg but rather within the somatosensory map in our brain. Using your mind-body connection, you interact with this map to influence neurotag development.
Neurotag Pain
Neurotags are networks of neurons that activate together to produce specific outputs. Each neurotag represents a collection of memories, emotions, sensory input, context, location, and prior experiences. Using this information, the brain assesses threat levels to determine if pain needs to be generated to protect you.
Overly Sensitive
Sometimes your nervous system becomes overly sensitive, and when this occurs, you may experience central sensitization. Central sensitization happens when the spinal cord is bombarded by nociceptive and other afferent signals. This amplifies neural signaling, which can cause pain and sensory stimuli to feel more intense. Central sensitization is one reason the brain sometimes creates pain without danger.
Pain Patterns
The brain can learn, and it uses pattern recognition to protect itself. Each time the brain creates pain, it becomes better at creating pain. This is neurotag development in action. This is another way that the brain creates pain in the absence of danger.
Sometimes pain patterns are created during wound healing, causing discomfort even after it has healed. It does this to err on the side of caution to avoid re-injury. This type of pain can persist post-healing.
Stress and Anxiety
Stress and anxiety amplify your perception of pain; this can make an old injury hurt, worsen an active injury, or even cause pain in areas that were never injured. Additionally, expecting something to hurt can trigger a nocebo effect that may generate or worsen pain. Together, these factors can lead to nonspecific pain.
Ready For the Next Step?
Discover more ways pain is a protector with pain management coaching. Using Discovering Safety Within you will help you learn how to feel safe in your body, respond to discomfort with more clarity, and create more ease in daily life.
Learn more about pain management coaching and take the next step.
Jennifer Brand Spa
Pain Management at 2717 Hwy K, O’Fallon, MO 63368