I went on a four-day weekend vacation with some of my friends. This was the first time I went away without my two-and-a-half-year-old toddler since he was born. Leading up to the vacation, I have been having a considerable amount of neck pain and it’s because of the stresses from having a toddler, from handling my business, from health conditions, and from always being on my computer. Prior to the pandemic, I was out and about and was always moving because I was teaching yoga. Now, I usually just talk to my clients virtually and I noticed that from sitting a lot more, I experience more neck pain.
After my vacation, I noticed that the pain in my neck was noticeably decreased. It was almost completely gone because prior to going on a vacation, my pain was six out of ten. When I came back home, it was barely at level one.
I am not saying that vacation alone helps with decreasing your pain. I worked with many patients who came to me and said that they worried their pain could increase because they felt it before they went on a vacation. Some believe their back pain could increase because they would have to sit in the plane for a long time or drive for hours to get to their destination. I could attest that 75 percent of the time, my patients came back and said that when they came home from their vacation, they felt a lot better and are completely confused about why the pain was gone and in about two weeks, I usually discharge them from physical therapy because they felt so good.
Why Vacations Help Pain So Much
Many times, the reason that pain is occurring in your body is not purely mechanical. Maybe certain movements may trigger the pain, but it may not be the reason why your pain is persisting.
Your environment has a lot to do with why pain might be occurring. If your job is really stressful, if your family life is stressful, or if things are just kind of difficult, pain could persist. The reason for that is because when you are stressed out, your nervous system is on high alert. It’s paying attention to things in your body a lot more and sending more signals up to your brain. When it is on high alert, pain is more likely to happen.
When you go on a vacation, your nervous system starts to settle out. It is not on high alert anymore because the regular stressors in your life have dissipated. When you are on a vacation, you are there to enjoy your time and do activities that you find joy in.
So, that’s why pain can decrease while you are away on vacation. It is important to get away on vacation – that is if you can because not everybody can – when you are recovering from an injury or recovering from some kind of chronic pain issue. During your vacation, you have to bring activities into your life that bring you joy. These activities are going to help decrease your nervous system from being on high alert so that your pain levels can begin to drop.
I hope that this episode gave you some insight on how to decrease pain outside of movement. Remember to find things that bring you joy!