Physiotherapy for pain and injury in London
Mindfulness programme The brief practice of mindfulness for just 10 minutes each day has a positive affect upon physical and psychological health. Mindful practice forms part of our treatment and proactive training programmes for chronic pain and health problems. However, learning the practice is beneficial for anyone who wishes to reduce feelings of tension, anxiety […]
My old headmaster would warn us not to fall into bear traps. By this he meant pay attention to what you are doing so that you do not make a simple mistake. He would set a few bear traps and see if we were concentrating or if we were on autopilot. It was also a […]
1. Mindfulness reduces suffering: pain, anxiety, tension. 2. Mindfulness promotes clarity of thought. 3. Mindfulness develops a sense of calm. 4. Mindfulness creates an ability to focus ones attention where you want to, and not in response to the wandering mind. 5. Mindfulness changes physiology, triggering restorative processes: e.g./ healing, digestion, sleep, anti-inflammatory action. For […]
At the risk of sounding ambiguous, many people are turned on. In particular, city dwellers and workers who are being hit with innumerable stimuli, bombarding the senses, triggering on-going responses by the brain, the mind and the body. Whether it be the noise of the traffic, the lights at night, the phantom vibrations of the […]
Logically, anecdotally and empirically, understanding one’s pain is a foundation from where action can be taken to initiate change. Conversely, lacking insight into the cause of pain and being unaware of the contributing factors creates anxiety that forms its own cycle of problems. This is certainly true when pain persists with no obvious structural or […]
Mindfulness commonly forms part of a comprehensive treatment and training programme for pain, anxiety and stress. The origins of the practice stem from many years ago but in a modern sense, mindfulness is mind training that is akin to physical training used to improve fitness. A great deal of time is dedicated to physical activity […]
Previously a scientist, Buddhist monk Matthieu Ricard, talks about happiness and the ability to train the mind to cultivate well-being, serenity and fulfilment. How can we nurture happiness? Ricard describes how we can do this in order to lead happier and fulfilling lives, blending the fundamentals of mind training with science. Many people who are […]
A threat can arise in many forms. Years ago, it would have been a wild animal that posed a potential danger, responded to with a fight or by running away — flight. Nowadays we don’t often face the physical threat of an animal attack, more likely it being the menace of street crime or the […]
Thich Nhat Hanh, a Vietnamese Buddhist monk who has written and spoken about compassion and mindfulness for many years, talks to Oprah Winfrey. There is a great deal that we can learn from him, in particular the potency of breathing and awareness of the breath that anchors us to the present moment, the only ‘real’ […]
We know that catastrophising about pain can shape the way in which the immune system responds to nociception – see the article in Figure 1. Catastrophising refers to the interpretation of pain as signalling something damaging and dangerous and is often preceded by hypervigilance to body sensations. This maintains a negative focus upon the body […]
I once had a conversation with a member of staff who told me that she was ‘just a receptionist’. Anyone who has considered the patient journey will realise that this statement is untrue. There is no ‘just’. There are important people involved with the patient’s experience from the start, and usually the receptionist is the […]
Running in the woods today I was taken back to school days when we would go down to the habitat to learn about nature. Our enthusiastic science teacher, whose laboratory experiments would invariably go wrong, led us down the hill, across the playing fields and into a small wooded area that surrounded a murky pond. […]
Back pain is very common and most people will experience it. Many reasons are given for back pain, usually blaming the discs (they are not discs but rather amazing structures that work with the vertebrae to allow movement and force transduction — they are also very robust), joints, muscles and posture. The simple fact is […]