Wired For Succes Podcast Episode #69: Learning From Pain with Claudia Garbutt

EPISODE SUMMARY

Pain can be a tough teacher… We are wired to avoid pain – but is that always the best way forward? Join scientist and mindset & high-performance coach Claudia Garbutt for this short & sweet episode on the two types of pain you want to distinguish.

In this episode we talk about:

– Moving through pain vs resisting pain

– Giving yourself grace

– Asking yourself the right questions to get unstuck

EPISODE NOTES

Claudia Garbutt is a molecular biologist turned mindset & high-performance coach who helps ambitious, mission-driven entrepreneurs ditch the hustle, overwhelm & busywork so that they can show up as authentic & confident leaders, grow their businesses to multiple 6- and 7-figures and beyond, and build their legacy.

After launching her Top10 Wired For Success podcast and experiencing the power of podcasting firsthand, she now also teaches other high-ticket coaches & service-based entrepreneurs how to go from best-kept secret to go-to expert by launching their own successful Top10 podcast that they can monetize from the get-go without having to grow a big audience first.

Claudia is German, a wife, mom of 2 kids and 2 cats, a runner, environmentalist, world-traveler and cancer survivor.

Wired For Succes Podcast Episode #69: Learning From Pain with Claudia Garbutt

Transcript:

Hey everyone! We’ve already come to the end of January 2022 and I’m curious to hear how the new year has treated you so far.

As you might know, my new year was off to a bumpy start…

Just before Christmas, I managed to injure my neck – I’m still not 100% sure what it was, but I probably pinched a nerve in my neck which then led to some forced literal downtime thanks to massive migraines, nausea, and a stiff neck…

So that has not been fun at all. And while I’m mobile again and the migraine and nausea have gone, I’m still struggling with weird pressure in my ears and some form of tinnitus.

It’s a slow recovery and a humbling experience for someone like me who is usually very active. I try to give myself grace and time & space to heal, but I would be lying if I told you that this hasn’t affected me at all.

As a mindset coach, I’m used to ask questions like “What can I learn from this?” to turn every challenge into a learning opportunity.

I find that learning from pain is tough though. It’s something we resist. We are wired to avoid pain and sometimes that makes things even worse.

Like in my case: I lay down for 3-4 days trying to move as little as possible to avoid the pain and the nausea. But when things didn’t improve, I knew I had to change my strategy and started to slowly and very gently mobilize my neck and back again.

Was it fun? No, it wasn’t. It hurt. But as I tried to relax into the gentle movement, I felt something in my neck release, and I felt that I was able to breathe more freely again.

So, what I’m taking away from this experience is that YES giving yourself time & space to heal is super important.

But sometimes resisting and avoiding the pain does not allow you to move forward and you have to go through the pain to come out on the other side, f that makes sense.

Like if you’ve dislocated your shoulder, or broken a bone – you need to get those things fixed, right? And fixing them might involve some intense pain, more pain than you’re in at the moment – but if you don’t go through that pain, you’re stuck and don’t get better.

Yet it’s so hard to think clearly when you’re in a lot of pain, right?

Maybe it helps to remember that there are usually 2 types of pain: The one we just talked about – where you have to eliminate the underlying cause first in order to get better.

And the one other one that only needs time & rest to get better. Like pain after a burn or surgery for instance.

It’s not always easy to know which type of pain you’re in. In hindsight, it’s clear that I should have started to move and mobilize my neck at lot sooner.

But I misjudged the situation: I thought I had a migraine that caused all the other issues and that resting would help with the migraine.

So, I thought the migraine was the cause when in fact, it was only a symptom of something else that was going on.

And that reminded me of how often we experience that sort of situation in other areas of our lives too: We’re experiencing some sort of problem that we’re trying to eliminate without success because we’re trying to fix a symptom instead of the root cause of the problem.

Eliminating the root cause often requires a completely different approach though! It often requires us to take the uncomfortable action that we resist. To face the uncomfortable situations we’d rather avoid…

So my awareness question for you today is this: Are there areas in your life where you’re stuck?

And if your answer is YES and you’re facing the same problems over and over – I’d like you to go deeper and ask yourself if what you’re trying to fix is maybe just the tip of the iceberg.

Are you trying to fix a symptom vs trying to fix a root cause?

I know those are tough questions to ask yourself. And you might not like the answer you get when you’re 100% honest with yourself.

But again, that’s the kind of pain you’ll have to move through if you really want to get better, right?!

Anyway, I hope you’ve had a better start of the new year than I did.

And if you’re NOT in pain right now, just take a sec to appreciate that. Seriously, so many people suffer from chronic pain and my heart goes out to them.

People who suffer from chronic pain AND manage to stay positive and productive regardless are true heroes in my book.

Even just being in pain for a few weeks made me appreciate NOT being in pain so much more.

We often take this for granted, but hey, things can change in an instance… It’s one of those things that you usually only truly appreciate when they are gone.

So, I invite you to take a sec right now to be grateful for NOT-BEING-IN-PAIN-ALL-THE-TIME!

All the best, take care & talk to you soon! Bye

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