From pain to ease: a playful walk outside

I wrote this poem a while ago using voice to text to write all of the words, and chatGPT to edit. It was a day that I had pretty significant head pain. As a person who has chronic Lyme disease, I experience and feel things that the average person does not.

Writing this was a fun way to describe and play with a practice that I use when pain is present.

Shifting the internal mental story through intention and visualization, integrating breathing, slow movement, and mindful awareness practices are techniques that I often use with clients struggling with overwhelming sensations or thought patterns.

Moving into a state of play, fun, and imagination helps send messages to the brain that it’s safe and can release the old looping thoughts.

Through my own healing journey, I’ve become fascinated by the brain’s ability to heal and overcome physical symptoms through brain retraining work. I’m a certified Pain Reprocessing Therapy coach, and this approach is evidence-based and it works!

I’d love to hear from you if you want to learn more.

———-

I wake up.
There’s a fire in my head—
trapped in a burning building.
I can’t breathe.
I can’t sleep.
I try to scream…
No one’s there.

All alone, I sit in the pain.
In my head—shifting, shifting.
I get up.
I place my attention on the ground:
my feet,
my legs,
my hips.
Finding strength.
Breathing in.

The body wants movement.
The strength and the power are there—
when I drop in.

I crave the sun,
the trees,
the grass,
the green,
the wind,
the clouds.

I go outside and walk—
moving my body to the rhythm of the Earth.
I close my eyes.

My spine becomes a maypole.
The fairies, the critters, the mice,
the bunnies, the chipmunks, the snakes,
the spiders, the ants—even the ticks—
weave colorful ribbons
around and through my spine.

Weaving through my torso,
up my neck,
through my brain,
they thread the ribbons through my nervous system.
All the colors.
All the colors of the rainbow.

My whole body—
my nervous system—
lights up with joy.

Feeling the connection:
to the air,
to the Earth,
to the sky,
to the universe.

As I move,
my being expands
and relaxes—
sinking into presence.

In this moment,
I am safe.
In this moment,
I am connected to love.
In this moment,
I look around with gratitude.

And I let go.
I can breathe again.

Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.