Painful Stormy Weather?
Pain Worse With The Weather
You might have heard many people describe how their pain worsens at different times of the year or relates to various weather conditions. For example, it is common for people to say how their arthritis is terrible in the winter or their pain is worse when it is cold. There are many variations of this, and for the person experiencing their symptoms, the changes are genuine.
However, the mechanism is a conditioned response rather than a direct link with pain and the weather through causation. For example, if it were the weather, everybody with a particular condition would have a similar reaction to their pain when those circumstances appear. That isn’t the absolute case; even though many people experience the same thing, it is an illusion that comes from correlation and not causation.
Our brains and bodies like to predict what’s coming next for us to know how to prepare for that.
All Day Every Day
The same preparation is going on all day and every day for the whole of our lives. It's an unconscious process where we consciously recognise aspects of what is coming next, but that conscious realisation triggers mechanisms of preparation within us that are invisible to us.
The invisible changes are those to our heart rate, breathing rates, blood circulating in our thinking and reflex areas of our brains, digestive and many other body systems. How tense our muscles need to be, what alertness is required, and what amount of energy and focus they will take must be calculated.
Most of those systemic responses are automatic and invisible. They apply to situations which we would consider good or bad. For example, the body and brain have to prepare precisely the same way to use our body’s resources as efficiently as possible.
Let's look at a couple of examples of how this plays out in daily life, and then you may be able to see more clearly how anticipation of weather can have a similar influence.
A Long Awaited Hug
If you thought of someone you loved, who you hadn't seen for several months, and had the opportunity to see them in a few minutes from now, just imagine how you would feel. You should be able to picture that individual, and you know how they would smile as they greet you and probably hug you after missing you for such a long time.
It should be easy to recognise that warm sense of physiological change, representing the feeling of love that manifests as you embrace them and all the joy the subsequent interaction brings.
You don't have to consciously think of each system regarding how fast your heart should beat and how quickly you should breathe. Do you have to contemplate how much blood should be in your digestive system or how tense your muscles should be? You intuitively know how that feels, and if you’d picked someone you genuinely love, you will feel the authenticity of that moment even as you imagine it.
Seeing The Boss
Imagine you have to go into a meeting with your boss or colleague where you anticipate difficult discussions, challenging words, and even potential conflict. Think of someone you have had this kind of experience with and picture them as the person you'll meet in a few minutes.
As you focus on meeting them and thrashing out an issue, the physiological changes you felt in the loving scenario are likely different from the more threatening situation with the protagonist you're thinking about meeting.
You don't need to measure or calculate what level of alertness is required in the scenario system by system; you automatically know what is necessary to set the alert at a sufficient level.
Predicting What Comes Next
It is very likely a different experience when you compare each scenario.
This is because you can predict how you will feel based on what you've learned from the past. That learning allowed you to survive that moment efficiently, and there’s a good chance that because you survived, the brain and body will use the exact mechanisms in preparation for it appearing again.
That means you don't have to think with any effort consciously, and you can allow your conscious brain to learn more, deal with and focus on new information that appears to build on your survival instincts and grow even more. This mechanism enables us to grow and learn to access more of our loving feelings and avoid those situations creating feelings we fear.
So when we compare the physical changes that people experience, can you see how the anticipation of a particular forecast can trigger unconscious changes similarly?
Changes Are Real
They are fundamental changes in the same way, whether through meeting someone you love or meeting someone who is a challenge—all based on a prediction using information from the past.
Each time an experience repeats, it becomes more effortless to recall how to do it again. The repetition with emotion makes the neural wiring of these experiences more unconscious and thereby more invisible to see as a conditioned response.
If it is reinforced by others socially, it is even more believable. For example, suppose that information comes in childhood through observing it in someone with authority over us. In that case, it has more potential to be wired unconsciously as a belief.
Oh, My Back With This Weather!
When parents or grandparents have wandered around us saying my back is terrible because of the cold, my pain is worse in the winter, or I know how I’m going to feel when it rains, they act as powerful signals of truth to a very young brain.
Much of learning comes through observation and copying, and to cope with situations we haven't yet experienced, we have to have some strategy in place. Copying provides this, but the trouble with unconsciously following and believing that weather patterns and pain are directly related means we potentially see this illusion as truth.
It doesn't mean that the changes this correlation brings are not real; they're just not brought about by the weather but by the belief and conditioning that changes will appear when a particular shaped cloud appears in the sky.
Good News
The good news is that beliefs can change, and although it isn't always easy if the reward is more control of your pain, you have to decide if that belief is worth challenging if it exists in you.
You can keep any or all of the physical changes you may possess at this stage of your life. But if your pain tracks the weather in the way I’m describing; then the potential exists for you to unwire that non-causative relationship and have pain free days on the days that have historically been more painful.
Once you consider changing a belief, you can then start working on the conditioned response that illustrates that belief's manifestation. Habitual words, behaviours, and reactions all present potential starting points for change and can trigger a domino effect that can elicit remarkable transformation.
However, the decision on when to make that change lies with you.
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