How you speak about your body can effect pain

This concept may make you roll your eyes or feel unscientific, but it has been proven in research to effect pain outcomes.

In fact, a patient's beliefs and personal outlook are now among the factors most commonly considered in prognosis (the likely course of an ailment) along with things like:

• age

• gender

• comorbidities

Now this doesn't mean that if you believe you don't have an injury or don't have pain that it will go away automatically.

What this does mean is that if you believe you are "broken," have a "bad back" or that "you're just getting old," then you believe you do not have any control and therefore won't get better.

This can leave you feeling helpless and at a loss for what to do.

Start reframing the way you speak about your body and treat it with more kindness.

Instead of...	Try...
​"I have a bad back"	"Sometimes I feel back pain"
"I am broken"	"I am human, therefore sometimes I experience pain."
"I'm just getting old"	"My body has changed so I care for it differently now"

This puts you back in control and empowers you to take action to get better.

Every single human will experience some type of physical pain in their life.

We all have different parts of our body that we may have more difficulty with than others.

That doesn't mean there is something wrong with you.

It means you're human.