Blog

Taro Iwamoto draws on his background in athletic training, orthopedic.neurological rehabilitation, and martial arts, his extensive study to become licensed as a PTA, ATC, CSCS and COMS, as well as his experience in practice as an exercise specialist at Olympic Physical Therapy and discusses such issues related to movement, rehabilitation pain, mindfulness, and wellness.

If you have been dealing with pain for years, there’s a very good chance that you have seen several health care professionals and been given several diagnoses (e.g., spinal stenosis, arthritis, herniated discs, pinched nerves, scoliosis, SI dysfunctions, spondylolosis, etc). And, perhaps, after years, those “labels” (diagnoses) may be so ingrained that they became a part of your identity and they may even provide some sort of security for them. If someone you never met tell you that you don’t have those labels/diagnoses, you may somehow feel offended and uncomfortable and may even argue with him/her that you have all those diagnoses because maybe you feel very insecure by the thought of detaching your diagnoses (which became your identity and emotionally attached) from you? If you lost your identity, who would you be and how would you identify yourself? A scary thought, isn’t it? This may sound strange, but I think this happens more often than you realize. Despite the fact pain is an unpleasant feeling and experience that no one wants in general, our nervous system always tries to stabilize and secure itself in this case by associating pain with you and your life.

Just remember you are not your diagnoses, you are not what someone else said. You don’t have be the person others describe you as, but you can also be the person who you want to become. Who do you want to become?

Enjoy the sunshine!