{"id":1729,"date":"2015-07-18T08:30:39","date_gmt":"2015-07-18T08:30:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/?p=1729"},"modified":"2015-07-12T20:41:06","modified_gmt":"2015-07-12T20:41:06","slug":"chronic-pain-that-awful-knot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2015\/07\/chronic-pain-that-awful-knot.html","title":{"rendered":"Chronic Pain: That Awful Knot"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Image<\/a>
Image courtesy of Lavoview\/FreeDigitalPhotos.net<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ever had a knot in your stomach? Or one in your shoulder? Ever had that feeling that you were the knot, all balled up and tight and immovable?<\/p>\n

Ever felt like, “If only I could get rid of this knot – life would be perfect!”<\/p>\n

Whether a physical, emotional, or spiritual knot, feeling the tension of fear, anger, pain, or frustration can be horrible. And if it goes on for days or years, the tightness can build on itself, creating a ball of something hard that becomes an obstacle to much of what we want to do.<\/p>\n

I’ve had knots in my shoulders that prevented my neck from moving fully. Knots of fear that were nearly paralyzing. Knots of worry that prevented sleep.<\/p>\n

But there are ways of slowing unknotting the knots and rearranging them into more manageable things that do not impede us so much as instruct us.<\/p>\n

For my physical knots, I’ve always worked with my doctor to determine what’s best – and this is what I tell anyone, too. Physical therapy, directed exercise, and other forms of intervention can be helpful, but we have to work with our doctors to know what will work for us.<\/p>\n

For fear, well, I learned in horseback\u00a0riding classes long ago – learning from the fear (what is it, what does it come from, why am I fearful?) and then re-approaching it can be very helpful. When we know we’ve overcome a fear once, it gives us tremendous self-confidence that we can use and improve on next time.<\/p>\n

For worry, as with all challenges in life, I especially turn to God in prayer. He has bigger shoulders that I do – and no pesky knots on them! – and can carry burdens that anyone else might find too heavy. \u00a0He also never sleeps, but is always watching and protecting us – so we can sleep. That is a powerful and comforting image!<\/p>\n

Of course, we all have our individual ways of dealing with our knots. But it helps, I think, to know that many others each day are dealing with similar challenges. And, it helps to know that knots can be unknotted – and God is with us all the way!<\/p>\n

Peace,<\/p>\n

Maureen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ever had a knot in your stomach? Or one in your shoulder? Ever had that feeling that you were the knot, all balled up and tight and immovable? Ever felt like, “If only I could get rid of this knot – life would be perfect!” Whether a physical, emotional, or spiritual knot, feeling the tension…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":548,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nChronic Pain: That Awful Knot - Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2015\/07\/chronic-pain-that-awful-knot.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Chronic Pain: That Awful Knot - Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ever had a knot in your stomach? 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She expected to be writing scripts. God had other plans. A few years after her graduation, Maureen was diagnosed with a life-threatening case of organ-involved lupus. Her life turned upside down as she grappled with the effects of the illness and other health conditions that ensued. She was no stranger to serious health challenges; even as a child, Maureen had survived numerous bouts of pneumonia, flu, and other infections. But lupus made her take a fresh look at her life goals - and took herlifelong, strong Catholic Christian faith and writing in a direction she'd never imagined. Today, Maureen writes and speaks about walking with the Lord while living with chronic pain and illness. Her most recent book is \"Don't Panic!: How to Keep Going When the Going Gets Tough (Franciscan Media). She is also the author of, \"Peace in the Storm: Meditations on Chronic Pain & Illness\" (Image Books\/Randomhouse), \"Beyond Pain: Job, Jesus, and Joy\" (Twenty-Third Publications), \"The First Year: Hypothyroidism, Second Edition\" (Perseus) and \"Taking Charge of Lupus: How to Manage the Disease and Make the Most of Your LIfe.\" She writes the syndicated column, \"Living Well,\" for Catholic News Service, and has also written for Saint Anthony Messenger Magazine, Journey for Women Magazine, The Upper Room Magazine, LupusNow, and Arthritis Today. Maureen's health continues to be a challenge, however she feels honored to be able to bring her perspective, from experience and knowledge, to others. \"Good Days...Bad Days with Maureen Pratt\" is a new way for Maureen to reach people who carry the burden of illness and pain in their lives, or who care for someone who does. Through the blog, she hopes to bring issues of health, wellness, and spirit into focus and, especially, inspire others that, no matter what health challenges, illness, or hardships they endure, each person can find a good way to realize the wonderful potential God has placed within each heart and soul.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.maureenpratt.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/author\/mpratt"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/548"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1729"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1729\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1730,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1729\/revisions\/1730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}