Health, Lifestyle, My Life

It’s about to get awkward: Let’s talk about pain

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Me at Loch Raven Reservoir

Can I be real with you all for a minute? It’s been a tough week.

I recently started listening to a podcast called Deeply Human that I highly recommend. It’s about why we do the things that we do, like get angry when we stand in lines or why it seems to get harder to find the perfect match the more we date, even though it seems like it should be the other way around. This past week, I listened to an episode on pain that hit deep. Pain is something I am no stranger to. I have dealt with chronic illness since I was 10 years old – there has not been a day in the last decade of my life that I have not experienced pain.

This may come as a surprise to some people. I am very active, & I normally consider myself to be a rather optimistic person as well. And, just to be clear, this illness has not made me feel any less grateful in my life. In fact, I think it’s helped me to realize just how blessed I am. I love my life. But, as much as I don’t want my illness to define my life, it is a part of it, just as much as my job, my relationship, or my cultural background. So, why am I comfortable talking about those things, but not about the pain I experience?

This podcast had a really good answer. Pain is something we all struggle to talk about first & foremost because it’s a private feeling. I can’t explain in words what it feels like to experience chronic pain. You can only kind of understand if you have chronic pain as well, but then, we still don’t quite have an understanding because everyone’s experience of pain is different. We all have different levels of tolerance. For example, if I burn my hand on a stove, & you burn your hand on the same stove, we could feel completely different levels of pain. So, even though we both are experiencing the same burn, we don’t truly have an understanding of what the other person is experiencing.

Secondly, there is a bit of a taboo associated with pain. When we express the pain we are going through, we try to make light of it – we diminish our experience because we don’t want people to feel sorry for us or make things awkward. To the same respect, the people we are telling about our pain feel pressured to keep things light as well. The topic moves on quickly. The trouble with this is that pain, whatever type it may be (mental, physical, acute, chronic) can seem very isolating. 

Pain is interesting because it is simultaneously a universal & very personal experience. We all experience pain, yet we can’t ever truly understand anyone’s pain but our own.

So, let me tell you about my week. It was an awesome week. I spent time with family & friends; I finished all of my work during the week (something that rarely happens), so I had the opportunity to have a lovely, relaxing weekend; I received my second vaccine shot; and my dad, brother & future sister-in-law came to visit me at my new house with a surprise gift: a new grill! It was a fun & exciting week, & yet, I spent quite a few days of it breaking down in tears because I received a disappointing letter. After years of fighting chronic illness, a trial program at Johns Hopkins was finally created to help bring relief to patients like me, but I didn’t get in.

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

You know what’s interesting though? My pain level hasn’t changed in the last week. I feel the same as I always do. Despite the disappointment, the most painful thing about receiving this letter is that I felt like I couldn’t talk about it. I succumbed to the social pressures that said talking about pain was taboo & thought that expressing my feelings about this experience would bring other people down, so I tried not to talk about it at all. I shared about my job, had a date night with my fiancé, & posted pictures on Instagram about what was happening during my day, never even mentioning the biggest thing that had happened in my life because it would make things “awkward.”

The most painful thing about this past week is that I felt alone. While gathering documents to re-apply to the program & shuffling through lab report after lab report, I felt like I was the only one who could possibly understand what I was going through. It made my pain feel isolating.

But, I’m not alone. Whether you have experienced something like this or not, you have experienced pain. We all have. And, I think it might be time to start talking about it.

When I finally broke down this past week & shared my feelings, I felt a weight lift off of my shoulders. For days, despite all of the good happening around me, it felt like this was all I could think about. That letter had me shackled in silent suffering. Now, despite the fact that I am still experiencing pain & I still haven’t been accepted into the program, I feel free.

No matter what pain you are experiencing in your life, I want you to know that you’re not alone, & I encourage you, as awkward as it may be, to talk to someone about it. And if someone comes to you expressing a pain they have been experiencing, I encourage you not to change the topic because it’s “uncomfortable.” Lean into the discomfort. Get to know someone at that deep & personal level. And if you can, try practicing vulnerability & sharing some of your pain as well. I truly believe that if we start doing this, despite the different experiences of pain that we have, we will all realize once again the universal aspect of pain, & therefore, we will feel less alone & more connected than ever before. And that’s important, because connection – true human love & empathy – can be healing. Human connection has been proven to strengthen our immune systems, reduce stress, & help patients heal from trauma. Pain, in & of itself, can be traumatic. It wreaks havoc on our immune systems, & it can be the source of or a symptom of stress.

I know it’s not a magic pill. It won’t heal any pain you are experiencing, whether it be mental or physical. But speaking up & connecting with others will bring you comfort & support during your journey, & for a lot of us, I think that’s all we really want from our community.

Speaking up isn’t easy. This blog post is a start. If you need someone to talk to, please reach out to me. I would love to listen to your story.

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Evolve, Health, My Life

My yoga journey: The powerful lessons I learned on my mat

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Me in Lotus Pose – Photo by Joseph Mauler

Note: This post does contain affiliate links. If you buy a product after clicking a link, I may earn a commission off of that purchase.

“Yoga is not about touching your toes. It is what you learn on the way down.”

–Jigar Gor

Yoga, for me, has always been a place of learning. On the mat, I learn more about myself than I discover in most other places in my life. I learn of my strength, my will, and my perseverance. I learn about my abilities, my draw to flexibility (both in my life & on the mat), & my limitations. Most importantly, I learn more about who I am, & I learn to love that person more.

Yoga was not always a part of my life. I was not a flexible child. I could not touch my toes if I wanted to. And for a long time, as ironic as it may seem given my current profession as a holistic health practitioner and personal trainer, exercise was not something I normally engaged in nor enjoyed. 

However, when I was 13 years old, I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia. This diagnosis came after months of widespread pain in my body to the point that it was difficult to get out of bed in the mornings. I was told then that yoga could help me, both in managing my physical pain & in managing my stress, which would, in turn, decrease the amount of pain I experienced.

At first, I was skeptical. Not only was I uninterested in yoga, but I had no confidence that I could do it. As many of my first-time students think, I thought I had to be flexible to do yoga. It never occurred to me that I had it the wrong way – I didn’t need to be flexible to do yoga; yoga would help me to become flexible. 

Me doing yoga on the beach in South Carolina – Photo by Kristina Stout

And it helped me with that in more ways than one. When I finally rolled out the mat & slipped back into Downward Dog, I found that yoga was not just for the body; it is for the mind as well.

The yogic lifestyle began to drip into other parts of my life. As someone who was always easily stressed & angered, someone who lived by a rigid & unyielding schedule fueled by anxiety, yoga taught me patience & flexibility. When challenges came my way, I used the strength yoga had taught me as I held Plank Pose for minutes on end. When negative situations threatened my joy, I learned to flip them around & look at them differently, just as I viewed the world from Plow Pose with my feet sitting behind my head & my shoulders supporting my body instead. I learned to meditate on worries when needed, & to let meditation sweep the worries away when they no longer needed to concern my mind. And at the end of my practice, as I laid back during Savasana, I learned that it isn’t necessarily the work, but actually the rest & relaxation that can be the most important part of my life. 

Yoga carried me through some of the most difficult moments in my life. It became a regular part of my daily routine. And I always felt better, mentally, physically & spiritually, when I stepped off my mat versus when I had stepped on. 

As I got older, I discovered I wanted to share this joy with others, & so I was professionally trained in the art & began teaching my own classes. There is nothing more fulfilling to me than watching a student come into my class, their body held tight with stress, their mind clearly clouded with overwhelming thoughts, & then to watch them leave with a serene expression, their body loose & mind at ease. Through teaching yoga, I learned another important lesson – my life is meant for so much more than my own experiences. I was given a life to give to others. 

Me teaching yoga at Stevenson University – Photo by Dannielle Decastro

Yoga is still teaching me every day. I have a stubborn mind, & I often have to be taught the same lessons again, but Yoga is patient with me, & it continues to teach me to have patience with myself. Yoga has helped me to love the body I have been given, to explore the depths of my mind & spirituality, to believe in my own abilities, & to have grace for myself when I fall. Even though I am a yoga teacher, I still often feel like I am the student in my practice, & this, too, has taught me an important lesson: humility, & in turn, compassion & empathy for others. 

Yoga is a journey, filled with ups & downs, back-bending difficulties & relaxing tests of patience & flexibility. But, if you are willing to embark upon it, I promise you will discover so much more than you ever knew about the most important subject you have to learn about in this life: Your self. 

Namaste.

P.S. I am currently competing to be the Yoga Warrior of 2021! Voting opens March 9. I would be so very appreciative if you would consider voting for me. You can place your vote here.

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Health

Punch Gunk: The anti-inflammatory product revolutionizing pain-management

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Me after running a half-marathon in a snow storm! I definitely needed some Punch Gunk that day.

Note: This article does contain affiliate links. If you purchase a product after clicking a link, I may earn a commission off of that purchase.

Dealing with aches & pains is something everyone is familiar with, but if you are an athlete, or someone dealing with a chronic or acute pain disorder or injury, you know that dealing with regular or severe pain or soreness can greatly detract from performance & quality of life.

One common solution to deal with pain is to take an over-the-counter or prescription pain medication, but in my experience as an athlete with a chronic pain disorder, these pills often don’t work. Not only am I discouraged by the long list of side effects that come with taking an over-the-counter pain reliever regularly, but so often the medications don’t provide any relief, or they focus on relieving some inflammation from all over my body rather than targeting the actual point of pain that is bothering me. 

But now, I have Punch Gunk, & I can honestly say it has changed the game in pain management. 

Punch Gunk was started by husband & wife team Cameron & Nadene McIntyre, who wanted to create a natural remedy for pain relief for athletes. Their displeasure with current products on the market was that most of them had an unpleasant odor, were greasy, & did not penetrate far enough to get the needed work done. After conducting extensive research with multiple athletes, & through collaboration with chemist Fred Khoury at Above Rinaldi Labs, they created Punch Gunk. It’s an FDA-compliant topical pain reliever made with nine natural extracts, including aloe, witch hazel, licorice root, & tea tree heart. It is anti-inflammatory, anti-microbial, & full of antioxidants; it’s designed to help relax sore muscles, reduce inflammation, fight free radicals, detoxify your body’s cells, & moisturize your skin. Their product has been endorsed by a number of high-profile athletes, including Pedro Minc, Kevin Holland, & Jessica “Evil” Eye. 

Full disclaimer: This company contacted me on Twitter & sent me a box of their products to try for free. However, everything I am writing here are my own, honest thoughts about this product.

The cream is like nothing I have ever used before. In the past, I have used two creams to help with pain: Icy Hot for athletic soreness, & magnesium lotion for chronic pain. Icy Hot is nice, but it’s a tad intense, & the medicinal smell isn’t always my favorite. Magnesium lotion has by far been my favorite pain relief cream because it does provide relief for chronic pain & it’s made with essential oils & other natural ingredients, so it’s gentle on my skin. However, the pain relief doesn’t last for long – it just doesn’t penetrate deep enough.

Punch Gunk is like a combination of the two, but so much more effective. It had a gentle cooling & heating quality to it, much like Icy Hot but a lot less intense. It smells wonderful, & it’s made with all-natural ingredients. Most importantly, it takes my pain away completely, & the pain stays away for much longer than it does with the magnesium lotion.

What I was most impressed by was the pain it removed in my rib cage. In my junior year of high school, I dislocated three of my ribs, & one of them still pops out of place pretty frequently. The only way I can get it back into place is to see my chiropractor, & when those visits are far apart, it means I have to deal with the pain of a dislocated rib & the associated muscular inflammation for sometimes months at a time. Nothing has ever taken away the pain of my dislocated rib except for a chiropractic adjustment. At least, nothing had taken away the pain until I tried Punch Gunk. By no means did it put my rib back into place, but it provided such exceptional pain relief that I forgot about the injury for hours. That is a huge win for me. 

Punch Gunk doesn’t just make pain relief cream. I was also sent a couple bath bombs to try, & I had the same pleasant experience. The bath bomb doesn’t have a strong, perfumed scent; it was much like slipping into a bath filled with epsom salts, but the relaxed sensation I felt in my muscles after my soak was much more enhanced. I felt relaxed all evening, & I slept through the night after my soak, which is another rare feat for me.

I strongly recommend Punch Gunk’s products for anyone. Whether you are dealing with minor aches & pains from sitting at the office all day, or you’re someone who struggles with chronic pain; if you’re an athlete dealing with soreness from an intense workout, or if you are nursing an injury back to health, this product will provide the pain relief you are looking for without any nasty side effects or toxic chemicals. And the pleasant aroma will help you feel relaxed & rejuvenated to tackle whatever you have left in your day. 

Punch Gunk’s slogan is “Tough Stuff for the Rough Stuff.” Life can get pretty rough sometimes, but with Punch Gunk, you can tackle all your goals without anything, even pain, holding you back. 

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