Category: chronic pain

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chronic pain

How to Get Rid of Chronic Pain

This is an introductory guide for high achievers, successful professionals, and executive leaders on how to overcome chronic pain, anxiety and other physical symptoms.

Creating this guide has been extremely difficult and I’ve been resisting it for a long time.

My role is to ask questions and listen.

The answers are in my clients’ words and often behind the words.

The roots of chronic pain can be repressed emotions, unconscious beliefs, and childhood trauma.

You can’t see all these things right now because they live in your unconscious mind.

You have to take every step on the journey to see and understand what creates the discomfort.

Continue reading “How to Get Rid of Chronic Pain”
Categories
chronic pain

My Pain Management Routine in Investment Banking

I used to suffer from back pain even though:

– I sat in a $1000 Herman Miller chair;
– I used reminders to take breaks from my desk;
– I did my stretches in the corridor;
– I swam during lunch breaks.

That was me 7 years ago.

I kept pointing the finger at my motorbike accident, my “damaged” back, my MRI, my height, my Oxford shoes, and everything else.

I had it all wrong.

It took me over ten years to get to the root of my pain—repressed emotions, anger, anxiety, and toxic unconscious beliefs.

Read this to understand why you are in pain.

— Angelos

Categories
chronic pain

Are you Hiding your Back Pain?

Are you hiding your back pain?

I used to.

“I see you’re limping today. Are you okay?”

“What’s wrong with your foot?”

I despised those questions.

I never wanted my colleagues to see me weak or incapacitated.

“I must have hurt my back but not sure how”, I’d say and put on a chilled smile.

I was also hiding my emotions—which, to be honest was harder than hiding my back pain!

A few years later, I realised that I was in pain because I was hiding from my true self.

The self who wanted to explore what else life had to offer—other than investment banking, Canary Wharf and the DLR train.

The self who wanted to say no to money no matter how scary that felt.

The self who wanted to surprise his family and friends by quitting the “perfect” career.

The self who was longing for an uncertain but rewarding journey.

If you too are hiding from your true self, I understand.

Others perceive you as successful and accomplished and you do, too.

But think for a second…

What if you didn’t hide from your true self?

Would you still be in pain?

What would be possible?

What would life look like then?

Loving you, Angelos

Categories
chronic pain

Intuition and Healing

My Client: The NHS says that there is no cure for my disease.

Me: OK, so what brought you here then?

My Client: I read your articles and what you say about pain makes sense.

One of my biggest realisations is that we often know things that we don’t know.

All human beings have access to some universal infinite intelligence.

Some call it God, others call it intuition, insight, instinct—it doesn’t matter.

A part of you doesn’t accept that there is no solution, even when everyone else says otherwise.

A part of you is curious to explore a route that no one has explored before.

A part of you may not have the answers now but knows that answers exist.

Listen to that inner voice.

This is when miracles happen.

At the end of the day, all problems were considered insoluble until someone found a solution.

They did because they listened to that rebellious and infinitely intelligent inner voice.

The same applies to healing.

With love, Angelos

Categories
chronic pain

Repressed Emotions Live in the Unconscious Mind

What’s the logical error in the next two sentences?

— Your chronic pain is caused by REPRESSED emotions.
— But I don’t have any repressed emotions.

If these emotions are repressed, it means that they exist OUTSIDE your conscious awareness.

They were so uncomfortable that you dumped them in the depths of your psyche without processing them.

I did this for years. That’s why it took me more than 10 years to get rid of my back pain.

I had read all the books, medical research, and even posts like this but I was in denial.

I believed I had a bad back, a heart condition, and many other things.

We all have blind spots.

That’s why it’s important to work with a therapist or coach who can guide you on uncovering all these blinds spots.

Loving you, Angelos.

Categories
chronic pain

Pain and High-Status Environments

Are you in pain and also working in a high-stress high-status environment?

Here’s something that you might not have thought about…

There is less of a stigma attached to seeking help for physical rather than psychological problems in this sort of world.

That’s why you may deny your emotional pain and instead express it through amplified physical symptoms—a process called somatisation.

Think about it.

Would you rather complain to your colleagues about your depression or your back pain?

A large body of empirical research links somatisation with suppression of emotions, stress, and trauma.

For instance, two weeks before they invaded Iraq, soldiers of the 82nd Airborne Division, experienced their distress differently.

Compared with combat-naïve soldiers, combat veterans denied emotional symptoms—such as anxiety, irritability, depression—and instead reported more physical symptoms—such as back or neck pain, hiatus hernia, headaches, digestive issues, insomnia or sexual difficulties.

When you stop denying the emotional pain and decide to work with it, physical symptoms disappear, often in seconds!

—Angelos

Categories
chronic pain

Chronic Pain is a Blessing

Chronic pain is a blessing that pushes you towards growth.

When you go pain-free, you’ll notice that you’ll be a different person.

Confident, resilient, grounded, mindful, self-aware.

A master at handling stressful situations and negative emotions.

You will be able to reframe situations and enter a blissful state in seconds.

Limiting beliefs such as “I’m not good enough” or “I’ll never be able to achieve x” vanish.

You flow gracefully and effortlessly towards those goals that once seemed impossible.

Your relationship or marriage thrives because you’re more mindful and emotionally intelligent.

Your consciousness is elevated and others are attracted to you.

The inner work of exploring and learning from your emotions is transformational.

This is NOT a journey from [Being in Excruciating Pain] to [Being Pain-Free].

This is NOT a journey from where you are to where you used to be.

This is NOT a journey from -10 to 0.

This is a journey from -10 to infinity.

One day you will thank your pain.

All I want from you is to be open and curious.

Let’s explore the deeper reasons for your discomfort.

With love, Angelos

Categories
Anxiety chronic pain

Being Like a Palm Tree

When I am asked how I help my clients … I use this simple analogy:

I help them become more like a palm tree than an oak tree.

When the storm comes the palm bends but then comes back up whereas …

The oak tries to resist the storm and ends up breaking.

My clients have always strived to become the strongest oak.

And they are indeed incredibly strong and hard to break.

That’s how they got to where they are.

After our work together, they become flexible, agile, and unbreakable.

No storm can bring them down.

Just like a palm tree.

With love, Angelos

Categories
chronic pain

All Sitting Postures Allowed

Back pain is NOT caused by your “bad posture”.

I’m not talking about that stiffness in your back after a stressful day at work.

I’m talking about the back pain that can last for months.

The pain that makes it impossible to get out of bed in the morning.

The pain that doesn’t allow you to exercise, play with your kids, go on a long bike ride.

The excruciating, debilitating, horrendous back pain that won’t go away.

Do you think this guy has that kind of back pain?

No, he doesn’t.

If he did, he wouldn’t be sitting like that, would he?

He’d be super mindful about his posture 24/7

Seriously…

What makes you think that this guy’s spine is stronger than yours?

Why can he sit like that without experiencing any pain?

Why is not everyone else on your floor in pain?

Do you sit for longer than they do?

Is their sitting posture is better than yours?

Your conditioning is the problem.

  • I have a bad back.
  • My MRI showed x and y.
  • I have to sleep on the side.
  • I have to do this particular stretch daily.
  • I have to stand up every 38 minutes and 20 seconds.

What should you do then?

Be like that guy in the picture.

Surprise your pain and break your conditioning. 

Do the things that bring you to life—walk, cycle, jump, run, whatever you love doing that you’re currently doing because of your pain.

Because what keeps you in pain is Not Living the Active and Fearless Life that you’re meant to live.

With love, Angelos

Categories
Anxiety chronic pain

Do you Still Meditate to Overcome your Anxiety?

If you meditate because you hate your anxiety, you should stop.

Do you often say to yourself: “If you meditated consistently, you wouldn’t be feeling so stressed out right now”?

Meditation is great and may help you get grounded but is NOT the antidote to anxiety.

Even if you get to meditate 10 times a day, it doesn’t mean one day you will be 100% protected from anxiety.

Meditation does NOT immunise you against anxiety.

If this is the reason you meditate, you’re doing more harm than good.

Because …

1 – You beat yourself up for not being able to stick to meditation.

2 – You get angry because no matter how much you meditate, anxiety doesn’t disappear.

3- The worst is that if you meditate or do something consistently “for your anxiety”, you send a subliminal message to your unconscious mind that you’re afraid of anxiety.

Fear of anxiety means … more anxiety.

With love, Angelos

PS: The picture is from my homeland—Lefkada, Greece. 💙