A Pain Brain Hack: 5,4,3,2,1
The 5,4,3,2,1 Technique to Reduce Your Pain
Here’s a technique used for anxiety by motivational speaker Mel Robbins that can help flip that sensation and situation and can be used with pain.
What do you do when you wake up, or you're not doing anything, in particular, your pain just comes on suddenly without you understanding why that is happening?
Your first thought could be that you must be injured or damaged or that your pain is coming back again, and you don’t know what you’ve done to cause it. It is natural to think that way. That pain sensation can trigger many other feelings and emotions if associated with that physical sensation in the past.
It could be feelings of fear, frustration, or anxiety that the pain has come again without you fully understanding why. You can get control of this, but first, you need to understand what is happening for you to feel this way in the first place.
Your body is going into a fight or flight state without you realising, which you are experiencing as physical pain. It does this because the brain and body subconsciously recognise cues that look similar to the time in your life when the pain initially started.
It could be physical cues of you moving that part of your body in a certain way or psychological cues such as thoughts or emotions.
Brain Associations
Let's look at how the brain learns to associate a physical reaction or pain to a memory or emotion.
When something nearly happened or could have been dangerous, do you remember how you felt? If you’ve ever had a near-miss in a car, how did your body feel at that moment? Your muscles likely tensed up, your heart rate may have increased, your palms got sweaty, and you felt that instant rush of adrenaline that makes you focus on what’s happening.
In that situation, the brain and body have a context for what is going on.
The reactions you felt were the right thing to do in that particular moment in time, to prepare you to take whatever action you could to protect yourself.
The reaction you felt was the fight or flight response driven by your brain in an emergency to help you survive.
As you go away in the car from that near accident, those reactions fade as your brain realises that the danger has passed, and now the bodily reactions you experienced start to return to normal. It is known as homeostasis as the body returns to a state of balance, and this is how it should be.
Pain for No reason
But what happens when you experience pain for no reason?
Your unconscious brain is going into the same fight or flight state, but your conscious mind has no understanding of what is triggering those painful feelings at that moment.
It just doesn’t make sense to you. There is no conscious explanation for why it is happening. You get scared, fearful, frustrated, or anxious in your conscious mind because you are experiencing the pain and have no context for it.
Your brain and body should only trigger pain when there is actual danger from a potential for damage or threat from an injury you’ve sustained. The brain and body react to protect you from the things that may cause you harm and from the things that may have caused you damage.
There is likely no actual danger and no actual new trauma when the pain just shows up. Instead, it is simply triggering those physical sensations, pain, and bodily reactions in error as it senses cues that have previously been linked to danger even though there is none present.
No Actual Danger
When you interpret why the pain has come, you attribute that painful sensation to damage or ‘wear and tear’ from what you understand your diagnosis is or what you believe has happened to you in the past. It is understandable for you to feel like that, but how can there be new damage when there is no recent trauma and the amount of pain you're in doesn’t fit with what you’ve been doing?
We often believe that our pain is related to tissue damage, but that isn't true. However, when you experience your pain and only interpret it as damage, it can trigger more stressful feelings, continuing the pain cycle. It can be alarming for you because if you don’t understand why the pain comes, it leaves you scared and fearful of doing anything that may bring it back again.
Take Back Control
You have the opportunity now to take back control of this situation.
You can train your unconscious brain and your body to react differently and in a much calmer way, which can reduce or altogether remove your pain. This technique uses an approach that targets both the unconscious and conscious parts of the mind and the body itself.
It uses a conscious action, a statement framing your current experience, and a physical movement towards that image.
It includes physical and psychological elements and involves conscious and unconscious responses—these work hand in hand to change the brain and body’s reaction from a place of fear to excitement.
Calm, conscious thinking teaches the brain and body that it's safe to do something. Movement calmly also teaches the body and brain that it is safe to do something. Both physical and psychological actions change your whole perception of that moment. The unconscious part of your brain and subsequent physical reactions will follow that perception like clockwork.
When considering the psychological part of this process, you have to decide upon a thought that demonstrates you are taking yourself away from the fearful thoughts that come with the painful experience. This process pulls you from your current mindset—fear from the past, present, or future. Your new thought brings you into a present safe moment. The idea that gets you there is an anchor thought. It could be thinking of your children, grandchildren, someone you love, something you love, a dear friend, or something for which you are grateful.
Countdown
Once you’ve got that thought, count backwards from 5 to 1. ‘5,4,3,2,1’, and then use that particular vision or thought you have chosen. It has to be specific. Think of how that looks, tastes, smells, or feels, so think of something within your body that gives you a sense of comfort, warmth, or love. Then state how excited you are to see that person, thing, or event in the present tense.
For example:
If someone chose the vision of seeing their grandchildren playing as that anchoring thought, it could be, “I'm so excited to see my grandchildren tomorrow.” So what you are doing is telling your brain and body how excited you are at that moment. It comes as you stand up or move, and the physical and psychological components have incredible power when used together in this way.
This psychological part works by changing where the blood flows in your brain. First, it interrupts the mechanism that triggers the reactions generated in the fight or flight response in the region of your unconscious brain known as the amygdala. Then, when you count backwards using 5,4,3,2,1, this uses another part of your brain known as the prefrontal cortex.
It awakens the prefrontal cortex, and when you count, it opens the blood vessels in that part of the brain, which is activated when you make conscious cognitive decisions. These are simply things that you consciously think about doing. So, when you decide to count backwards, the brain has no choice other than to kick start that part of the brain into action.
So, when that person who chose the image of their grandchildren has that picture in their mind and feels excited about seeing them, then the unconscious part of the brain now thinks that person’s heart is racing because they are excited to see their grandchildren. The physiological, chemical reaction of fear is the same as excitement. Still, excitement puts a positive frame on those chemical sensations rather than an opposing viewpoint, fear and the associated pain.
Moving
Regarding the movement component, think about how the unconscious part of your brain views it in the fight or flight mode. There is a physical feeling that represents your fear. As soon as you stand, change position, walk, it symbolises doing something different physically to that fear. It demonstrates you are taking action. Your unconscious mind will interpret your movement as you take yourself out of the way of danger and towards the exciting image. You have to move in some way to demonstrate this to yourself.
Counting
The process of counting backwards, seeing the image, the thought, and movement may need repeating a few times as you have to reassuringly tell your unconscious mind and give it the reason it should start to calm your body down. For example, in a car crash situation, your conscious mind knows why your body is acting in that way. By taking control of the present moment, your conscious mind has a reason to understand what the unconscious mind has been doing.
Reframing
You are now choosing to frame that experience through excitement and not fear. The brain and body’s physiological response is the same in each emotion, but how you perceive those feelings is entirely down to your choice.
When it comes from a situation where there is no actual real danger or new damage, then choosing excitement as the viewpoint allows you to normalise the brain and body’s response and return to a balanced state.
All that’s happened is that you have started to have an ongoing concern about your pain or the body area where you experience that sensation.
It could be due to an actual injury in the past or to a time in your life when you were in a state of high emotion. It can lead to physical pain developing due to the sustained period of emotional distress.
The recurrent sensation of pain and any associated anxiety or any other negative emotion around it becomes the driver for that chronic pain to return in the way it does. It does it without rhyme or reason; it waxes and wanes, which becomes a cycle that can feel very difficult to break. That pattern has become a habit, and now your unconscious mind and body work hand in hand whenever it senses a cue that represents a danger to you.
You can reverse that process. Using your conscious thoughts, word, and actions, you can retrain your body and mind.
Here’s a Recap of the 5,4,3,2,1 Technique
Pick an anchor thought that reminds you of a place where you feel delighted, centred, and grounded.
You must choose something that makes you feel comfortable.
Someone you love.
Something you love.
Somewhere you love.
Sometime you love.
Count backward from 5 to 1. (5,4,3,2,1)
Now stand up or move and state how excited you are as you think of that thought.
Make the image as vivid as you can.
See it, taste it, hear it and smell it. (Do everything you can to truly bring it to life so that you feel the genuine sensation of excitement about it.)
Repeat it 2 or 3 times.
Watch the magic happen!
What’s next?
Take Your First Step to Recovery.
Join our FREE private Facebook group, The Pain Habit Community, to see how others have successfully returned to a pain-free life. Get support on your journey.
Sign up for The Pain Habit Blog below.
Subscribe to The Pain Habit YouTube channel.
Buy The Pain Habit book. Order here.
