My Top Resources for Chronic Pain & Personal Growth

Let’s face it, there are a lot of websites, books, podcasts, etc. out there that are resources for both chronic pain and/or personal growth. So many, that it’s hard to sort through to find the good ones. I have been on a personal growth journey for several years, and that journey started just over a year after my UCTD/fibro diagnoses. So for me, they are fairly tied together. While I recognize that is not going to be the same for everyone, I just want to show that it is possible to learn to cope with chronic pain and engage in personal growth and development at the same time. Which is a little different that say Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs, which states that basic needs – such as safety and health (I think chronic pain falls under these subcategories) need to be met before achieving self-actualization. If anything, it seems to align more with some schools of existentialism, like that of Viktor Frankl, who could find meaning even while living in a concentration camp (basic needs not being met).

One of many resources available on the internet.

All that said, here are some of my favourite resources for chronic pain and personal growth:

Websites
A Chronic Voice (blog) – I’ve actually guest-posted on this blog. Sheryl does an amazing job with blog and has a ton of informative and helpful articles and posts.

The Pain Toolkit (website) – Pete Moore is a person with lived experience who presented at the World Pain Summit that I attended in October 2021. His pain toolkits, workshops, and other resources are comprehensive and impressive.

Tiny Buddha (website) – This website probably falls under the “personal growth” category but because there is a ton of evidence of mindfulness helping improve the lives of those with chronic pain, you may find it beneficial as well.

Books
When the Body Says No – this book by Gabor Mate (MD) is quite informative about chronic pain itself, and includes real life stories about his patients over the years. It can be helpful for shifting perspective and gaining understanding of all of the biopsychosocial factors that affect pain and illness.

Full Catastrophe Living – Jon Kabat-Zinn (MD) writes about his mindfulness-based stress reduction program, research that supports it, and how it (and mindfulness more generally) helps with both physical and mental health. Definitely a read if you’re interested in mindfulness already.

Tuesdays with Morrie – this classic book takes us through several Tuesdays that author Mitch Albom spends with his former university professor, Morrie Schwartz, who is dying of ALS. It offers a lot of wise advice and can help with outlook and perspective in living with illness.

Podcasts
Admittedly I don’t listen to a ton of chronic illness/pain podcasts, but these are some with great overlap.

Unf*ck Your Brain – hosted by life coach Kara Loewentheil who has chronic pain and offers advice and coaching on a variety of topics. She includes a feminist perspective and some cognitive-behavioural inspired techniques.

Therapy Chat – designed for both therapists (and hosted by a therapist) and anyone interested in mental health, there are a ton of episodes on chronic pain because of the overlap of pain/illness and trauma (the hosts’ specialty is trauma). Not a substitute for therapy, but definitely a resource for psychoed.

The Happiness Lab – I think this is just a fantastic podcast for anyone because we all have misperceptions about what will make us happy, and we can learn a lot about what will actually make us happy from Harvard Psychology professor Laurie Santos and her guests.

YouTube
Okay, I’m actually just going to plug my own content here – don’t hate me for it.

Kelsey L Harris Meditations – I offer a ton of mindfulness and meditative-type exercises, many of them that work great with chronic pain, and most based on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy which has been shown to be helpful for chronic pain.

Aligning Mindfully – my other meditation channel which include a 5 minute meditation challenge (with more meditations and challenges coming soon!).

I hope you all find these resources helpful! If you have any others that you think should be on the list, please comment so I can check them out as well! Keep making the most of it!

The Power of Words

I know most of us are probably familiar with the phrase, “the pen is mightier than the sword,” and I definitely think that is true. Not just because I’m a writer (I love to write everything – this blog, self-help books, fiction novels and short stories, poetry, screenplays/teleplays) but because there is research that shows that writing (and very specifically journaling) is good not only for our mental health, but our physical health as well. This is one reason Chronic Illness Warriors might want to jump on the journaling bandwagon.

Apparently I’ve always been a writer.

So the whole reason I wanted to write about this is because I was re-reading a textbook for my practicum (basic counselling skills, etc) and one of the interesting things that I read was that a researcher named Pennebaker found that people who record “troubling experiences in diaries showed better immune system responses and significantly better health than those who did not.” Now, I’m not saying I think that any kind of writing is going to suddenly magically cure any of us and we’ll just feel 100% better by doing so. The research though is super interesting. I think that most people can acknowledge the mental health is helped by sharing our story – through therapy, support groups, and writing/journaling. I personally find it just good for my mental health to do any kind of writing, including creative writing, whether or not it directly has to do with my struggles (let’s face it, every writer has a character who is more like them). It can feel good to journal because it can allow you to process, be reflective, and just get something off your chest, and it’s particularly effective if you are struggling with your mental health on top of your physical health.

This kind of journaling has many benefits including self-compassion.

In terms of physical health, researchers have found journaling to help with viral infections such as Hepatitis (so yes, potentially even Covid-19 as well). There was also a study that looked at gratitude journaling by those with heart failure, and found that morbidity was decreased and inflammation was reduced in the majority of patients. Now obviously more research always needs to be done but it is an interesting and promising start. How exactly does it all work? Well, that’s not 100% clear but journaling can lessen overall stress (for those reasons I stated for mental health) and stress and immune functioning are related, so it kind of makes sense that like some other mindfulness activities, journaling (or perhaps other forms of writing) can be helpful. I’m all about the “even if I just feel better today” (or for a few hours) attitude. Why not help ourselves in the present moment? All we really have is this moment, because the next one doesn’t exist yet, and the last one has passed. In this moment, if journaling helps me feel better and potentially helps my body and mind function better, than maybe that’s a good reason to make today the day you start a journal.

I think this tattoo of mine really sums up how important I think writing is (because why else would I have tattooed it on my body!)

Have a good week and keep on making the most of it!