Mind-body book review – 'Emotions and stuff: how I released 15 Years of chronic pain and returned to fitness' by Daniel Hindsley

On the blog this month, Living Proof volunteer, Claire Birnie reviews Dan Hindsley's recently published book on his recovery from chronic back pain and degenerative disc disease using a neuroplastic (or mind-body) approach.  

Introduction

It is positive news that there is now a growing number of books about mind-body healing, and Living Proof Ambassador Dan Hindsley’s new book, Emotions and Stuff: How I Released 15 Years of Chronic Pain and Returned to Fitness, is an excellent addition. Dan gives an open, honest, vulnerable and compelling account of his healing journey, whilst providing a great overview of the brain science, and practical actionable steps. This would be an excellent introduction to the topic for anyone new to mind-body work. It is an inspiring success story and has great suggestions for how to return to exercise, sport and activities that you love, after years of suffering in chronic pain. 

Dan’s Health Story

Dan was young, fit and active when he started to notice glute pain playing football. The symptoms grew, spreading to his back and legs and stopping him from participating in the sports he enjoyed, always in fear that he was causing more damage. Rounds of medical visits followed over the years, culminating in the diagnosis of degenerative disc disease, and the devastating news delivered by a surgeon that recovery was not an option. After 13 years of suffering, Dan stumbled over the mind-body approach on the internet. He was intrigued that the latest brain science was suggesting that the cause of his pain could be something other than structural damage: chronic stress, thoughts and repressed emotions. Though the science resonated, he was sceptical at first, and he reassures the reader that it is OK to feel that way. Ultimately it took him two years to fully resolve his symptoms and return to an active life. 

A New Healing Tool 

The main tool that Dan used in his recovery was exploring his thoughts, feelings and physical sensations through journalling. But he didn’t care for it at first: "admitting, even privately to ourselves, that we get stressed, and can feel down, anxious and afraid at times can be tough". But he persisted, having understood that there was a growing body of evidence that the brain creates physical reactions in the body as a survival mechanism, and the body can become stuck in fight, flight or freeze mode. 

Dan goes on to explore and explain how our bodies are designed to handle the experience of acute or short-term stress when the body senses danger, reacts to protect us (with physical symptoms designed to act like an alarm) and then returns us to a state of homeostasis when the danger has passed. But the problem comes when the stressors are long term or chronic and the danger can become our perception of that threat, and the thoughts and emotions that surround it. This is when symptoms can become chronic.​​

Neuroplasticity Provides Hope 

Modern science has shown that the brain continues to change throughout or lives. It can learn pain and build strong neural pathways, but importantly it can also unlearn those pathways - this is neuroplasticity. Dan explains these concepts brilliantly, and illustrates them with meaningful examples from modern life and his own life, such as the fear we can feel when we receive an email from our boss, and the beliefs that we hold about ourselves. 

Personal Insights 

Looking back, Dan can see how competitive and driven he was, how his fast-paced sales job and family responsibilities weighed heavily, but he put on a brave face, considering showing emotions to be a weakness. Journalling proved to be an effective and private way for Dan to bring all these feelings to conscious awareness without judgment and to shine a light on areas of life that needed to change.  He emphasises that it was not enough to understand the mind-body theory; he had to put it into practice.   

Practical Advice and Tools for the Reader 

Dan offers some simple journalling exercises throughout for the reader to try out, and has advice on how to get started, empathising with how much resistance we may feel: “The next step for the courageous, is to begin the work of identifying life events that might have created emotions that we have repressed… for some people this will be too emotionally painful, and they will avoid this step in the process. It seems that some wait until the physical pain is greater than their fear of emotions."

Dan’s Recovery 

Over time as the pain dissipated, Dan managed to re-introduce all movement, with a return to running being the last on the list and hardest to overcome. He is now an amateur triathlete and tells us he is fitter and stronger in his forties than ever before.

Dan continues to live by mind-body principles, and now five years on from recovery, he loves journalling as a means not only to explore all his thoughts and feelings, but weigh up decisions. Not only is he free of chronic pain and able to do any physical activity, he feels his way of seeing life – and health - is transformed.  

Dan enjoying an active life post recovery

Final Thoughts 

There are just so many great nuggets, metaphors and insights in Dan’s account, I highly recommend it. I love the title, and can see this appealing in particular to men who may be wary about approaching emotional work.  

Dan points out that this is a low-cost approach, available to everyone, that they can simply try out - an idea that is at the core of Living Proof.

Click here to purchase Dan's ebook.