In my last blog, I shared three things I wish I’d known at graduation. One was: that there is a skill set that can help prevent those pains that will inevitably happen along the way from becoming chronic.
Having lived with severe chronic pain, and recovered ( and done a lot of learning along the way) I think these are the skills that you need to cultivate to avoid chronicity, manage well with pain that you have, and to potentially overcome pain.
1. The skill of relaxation
If nothing else, this.
And yes, relaxation is a skill, not just a state of being.
When you’re constantly on the go, dealing with pressure, people, and problems, it’s easy to lose the ability to truly switch off. You might reach the end of the day, collapse on the sofa… and your body doesn’t know how to let go.
Your nervous system needs practice to remember what “relaxed” actually feels like. That’s why relearning how to downshift on purpose is such an essential skill.
You can catch the tension cycle before it makes rest feel impossible, it just takes some deliberate practice. There are all sorts of ways to do it: breathing exercises, meditation, yoga.
I favour Constructive Rest because it’s all about getting your body comfortable and has the bonus of creating a conditioned response to assuming the position, so it can start to work as a on-demand quick acting relax!
2. The skill of postural ease
Oh, the effort I used to put in.
As soon as back pain crept in for me, I got more careful about my posture. I was very correct, and it looked pretty on the outside, but it was exhausting. All that control was winding my body up, not calming it down.
When it comes to veterinary work, those postures we have to maintain can be awkward – from dentals to sheep caesarians. Knowing how to access ease even in imperfect scenarios is essential.
The skill I wish I’d had? Knowing how to find ease and support in my posture without overworking. It’s not about either slouching or sitting up ramrod straight. It’s about developing body awareness so you have the choice to be in balanced poise with minimal effort, free breathing and calm. You’re not stuck between the options “collapsed” and “rigid” that can so often happen when you have pain.
This is an especially important skill if you have hypermobility – maintaining postures can be exhausting and painful if you don’t know how to approach it. This isn’t something I have, but more than half my clients are hypermobile, and sitting and standing is often their hardest thing.
This kind of ‘correct’ posture is far too much hard work and can wind up your nervous system and perpetuate pain. Good posture doesn’t have to be rigid and forced.
3. The skill of movement variety
When pain started creeping in for me, I didn’t realize how much it was limiting my movement variety.
There were a few things I avoided, where possible, because they hurt. But I didn’t notice how everything else was getting smaller and tighter too. Because that’s what happens with pain – you guard and protect yourself.
Learning to keep your movement repertoire open and flexible in small, gentle ways is a skill that helps your body stay adaptable. It gives your nervous system better input, and helps avoid that creeping sense of stiffness.
Avoiding painful things is totally sensible, up to a point. But learning to keep some variety in movement on purpose is a skill I wish I’d had much sooner. It’s about noticing when your options are shrinking, and actively keeping some variety in your movement “menu.”
Actually, this is often about finding ways of moving that aren’t painful, to reassure and calm your nervous system. Later on, you might find you can add back in those movements that used to be painful, because everything has now calmed down and your body is more tolerant.
4. The skill of movement ease
You don’t have to work so hard!
When under stress or in pain (or both), it’s easy to grip, brace, and try harder. Your muscles start working against each other. Everything feels tight, awkward, and unnecessarily hard. It adds to life being tiring and draining.
The skill here is being able to shift up and down the “effort scale.” To work strongly when you need to and then let go when you don’t.
Often, the ramping up of muscular tension is led by concentrating hard, or being under stress, rather than a physical need.
Surgery would be a prime example – being tense and tight in most of the body despite only having to make small movements with light instruments. Separating the need to physically work hard, and the physical loads we put on ourselves when concentrating can be invaluable.
5. The skill of nervous system care – in real time
Not in every moment. But not just at the end of the day, either.
This doesn’t have to look like “doing something special.” You don’t need to take deep breaths or pause everything (unless you want to). It can take two seconds, two minutes, or be a full deep wind down over half an hour. Calming your nervous system can even be something you do while talking, once it’s practiced.
Waiting until the end of a ten-hour day means your nervous system may already be so wound up that it’s hard to wind down again. So I strongly suggest having a way to drip feed some nervous calming during the day.
There’s lots of ways to do this, but I personally concentrate on using calming the body to send soothing messages to the brain – to start a virtuous circle for brain and body.
Overlapping skills
You might have noticed how these self-care skills all overlap. They all compliment and build on the other to start getting big system shifts over time.
They work together like pieces of a puzzle – each skill supporting and strengthening the others. Master them early in your veterinary career, and you’ll have the tools to stay comfortable and resilient, no matter what your workday throws at you.
Want to learn these self care skills? Get on my newsletter list to be the first to hear about the group course I’m brewing!
Email help@backtoactive.co.uk for Self Care Skills for Vet/vet nurses online course details
Keen to start now? I cover all this and more in my 1:1 Pain Freedom Pathway package.