(no music) (10 hours) PLEASANT MEMORIES | Let me bore your pain away #35 | Jason Newland | 27th May 2025

Hello and welcome to jasonnuland.com. My name is Jason Nuland and this is Let Me Bore Your Pain Away. Please only listen when you can safely close your eyes. So, this is a chronic pain relief session really.

I'm going to talk about, you know, just a few ideas. Now, it's really important that before you listen to this recording, you first of all know the cause of that physical pain. So, you do need to have had a diagnosis from a doctor, a medical practitioner, you know, someone like that, a specialist.

And also, you need to get permission from a doctor, GP, medical specialist before listening to this. So, saying that, I'll get on with it. Then we'll get on with it.

It's very early in the morning, blimey. Oh gosh. It's 5.47am on Tuesday the 27th of May 2025.

I'm still 54. Still 50. I'm holding on to being 54.

Never thought that would happen. End of August, I'm 55. So, I'm not really in a hurry for the year to go by.

I'm happy for the next couple of months, June and July. I'm happy for them to, just to relax fully, flutter by. So, Vinny is fast asleep in bed.

I've been creeping around, trying not to wake him up. Because once he's awake, he has a bit of energy first thing in the morning sometimes. And he might start hassling me and wanting to do something.

So, hopefully he'll stay in there, in bed. And I'll close the door in here and be very quiet. So, this is about chronic pain.

And I should explain the difference between chronic pain and acute pain for those that are not aware of what the difference is. Basically, acute pain would be when there's something that needs medical attention, and, you know, generally now, that would be acute pain. Appendicitis is a really good example of that.

Or a pain in the chest is something that should always, you know, be taken seriously and go to the doctors, call an ambulance or whatever, especially, you know, if you're ancient like me. But you know, certain things, acute pain, compared to chronic pain, which would be classed as really pain you don't need. It's like unnecessary pain.

So, your body's healed. The warnings, because it's just a warning of danger. That's all it is.

It's just to let you know to be careful with that part of your body, or that there's something wrong, maybe. For example, you break your leg, you break your arm, or whatever, something like that. You know, it's painful.

But it's painful for a reason, because it needs medical attention. You know, if there's a break in your body, especially like a limb, if it doesn't get fixed, or a dislocation needs to be undislocated, and then it doesn't hurt anymore. Or it might be sore, but you know, it won't be like it was.

So, it's just, it's basic, isn't it really? Obviously, you need, you need, it's getting your attention. It's like a crying baby. It's getting your attention.

Chronic pain is afterwards, when you've healed. It's not needed. I mean, technically, there's that little middle bit that I think of, when I think of broken arms, broken legs, post-op.

When you know you're fine, or even, I don't know how to say it, but you know, end of life, or illnesses, diseases that are there, you know, that can't be maybe changed. So, there's chronic pain involved, maybe, then sometimes there's acute pain as well. But so, fibromyalgia, chronic pain.

Arthritis, chronic pain, but it's not needed. If you know what I mean, it's not something, so I have arthritis in my lower back. There's no warning, danger signals needed for me, because it's what it is, it's a danger signal.

And it's not needed because I know what it is. That's all it is. So, I don't know why I'm trying to explain this.

I guess I'm trying to understand it myself. It's still a bit of a weird subject, really. Oh, here's an interesting thing.

Here's two bits. I'm fascinated with the subject of chronic pain. I'm more interested in reducing it, but I'm just fascinated by the whole thing.

Here's two bits of trivia. And for you. Okay.

So, with hypnosis, let's have a look. Oh, no, that's not what I want. Right.

I don't know if you knew, but hypnosis was used for pain relief. I'll go even further than that. Hypnosis was used quite regularly to help people to anesthetize or to at least relax, calm down during operations, before there was anything else that could be helped.

You know, it was either that or give them a bop on the head with a hammer, you know, or drink until they passed out. So, there was a time. And then, I think, just checking the correct drug, ether was discovered.

And this was the 1800 and something. So, basically, hypnosis is being used. And then ether, a chemical anesthetic, which acts on brain receptors, which shuts down your awareness of kind of what's going on, I guess.

It was easier, much easier. So, hypnosis was just knocked on the head, just like, as far as surgical hypnosis went. Didn't bother anymore, because I didn't need to.

That ether didn't need hypnosis for pain relief, that ether. So, drugs, from then on, took over. It's just easier.

And, yeah, I mean, to be fair, if I was going to have an operation, if it was a choice between hypnosis or drugs, I'll choose the drugs. Knock me out. I'm not interested in being awake.

You know, just honest, it's true. I had my appendix out when I was 12. Yeah, I'd want to be unconscious for that.

Yeah, thanks. But, unfortunately, it kind of put things back for hypnosis and chronic pain, because it, I mean, you know, hypnotists still continued to help people with chronic pain, still continue to advance it, and develop it, and, you know, study, as I do, as I am, kind of in my own little way, to find different ways of addressing it, different ways of using, utilizing the, I mean, technically, this isn't hypnosis, but, yeah, you know, it's still using the same process, still using emotions, still using imagination, still using expectation, still, you know, that kind of stuff, as well as education. I don't mean that as like, I'm educating you.

I don't mean it like that. I mean, just giving you a bit of information that you may not have had before. But the other thing that I just find is fascinating.

Okay, I'm looking it up. So I know what it is, but I don't want to get the information wrong. Okay.

Okay. Right. So this is to do with chronic pain.

Right, here we go. So let's look, do, do, do, do. Okay, I got that wrong then.

Nope. I thought guillotine guillotine was connected to head sort of pain relief. Oh, that's weird.

Oh, yeah. Joseph Ignis, he's very Ignis guillotine. While he didn't explicitly work with on chronic pain, relief and medical sense.

His core philosophy was deeply rooted in reducing unnecessary pain. The guillotine as a form of pain relief. So before its introduction, executions in France were often gruesome and drawn out.

guillotine proposed a method that would ensure instant death, meaning zero physical suffering in theory. His reason was both medical and moral. Let us end barbarism.

Wow. So, you know, um, yeah, I guess this. There is a guillotine, a person called guillotine involved in.

Yeah, there was something to do with it. Is there's, I think there's like a whole thing saying, oh, guillotine, by the way, you know how he died on a guillotine? No, he didn't. So, yeah, I don't know, I just got caught away with that one, caught away, caught up, drawn away.

It's funny, just the idea that someone that created a machine like that would be interested in relieving suffering. But that kind of is the reason why he did it, because he wanted to, to cause less pain. And I don't know, it's, I mean, it makes sense.

I mean, it is logical, kind of. And I suppose a modern day version of that would be to send a missile from space to the person, I don't know. It's.

So, that's a very, very overlong description of pain relief and blah, blah, blah. Without even having got to the point of why I was doing this recording in the first place. However, how do you feel now? Even though I've just been gobbling on about whatever it is I've been talking about? How do you feel? How do you feel emotionally? And how do you feel physically? Physically? How's your mind right now? Is your mind calmer? Less activity? Less chitter-chatter? Does your body feel more relaxed? Maybe that part of your body that felt, maybe had unpleasant feelings, maybe you feel different now than you did before.

Now, there's a technique for relaxation. It's not just relaxation, but there's, it's, this is a unusual technique, but it's something that can be used where you think back to a previous time in your life. A memory, as it were.

So, in the case of relaxing. So, relax. In case of wanting to relax, you imagine maybe a time when you were on holiday, maybe lying on a beach or on a sunbed at the side of the hotel barbecue or swimming pool.

I think for me it'd be a barbecue. I definitely prefer food over swimming, especially as I don't swim. I wouldn't want to be too close to the barbecue.

Also, not too far away. I want to be close enough so that the person cooking can bring it to me and hold it while I take bites out of the burger. I'm on holiday.

Plus, it's my fantasy. It's my fantasy. I'm allowed to be fed in my own fantasy.

At least I'm chewing my food. It's not like I'm getting someone to chew it and spit in my mouth, is it? So, that's super lazy. So, you know, and also a little bit disgusting.

Possibly. I don't know. Maybe.

Animals do it. I do this for Andre sometimes. Anyway, birds do it.

Squirrels do it. Even tiny shoes do it. So, by thinking back to a memory, it's not just about thinking of something from the past, but our brains kind of don't know the difference between that and now.

It's a weird thing. It's like when you focus, if you spend all day long just focusing and imagining you were down, relaxed in a beautiful, your perfect place, wherever that is. It might be in the snow on a mountain.

You know, everyone's different. So, wherever your perfect place is. I mean, it might be balancing on the edge of a volcano.

Weirdo. But, you know, it could be. If that's what you like, then great.

Why would you do that though? I mean, I imagine it's quite, on a cold day, it keeps you warm, but blimey. Get some thick socks and a hat. So, if you just, if you used to do that all day long, imagine that scenario where you were completely relaxed.

Your brain would not know the difference. Your body would not know the difference. You would have all those feelings, all those physical sensations, possibly the same thoughts, the same emotions, the same expectations, as if you were there, like literally there.

So, when you think about that, realizing that that's how powerful our imagination is. So, something we think about can actually cause the body, can cause the brain to believe that that's what's really going on, that that's where we are. It's almost like we're telling the brain, I want those feelings.

And the brain just gives it to you, because ultimately, the brain is in control of how you feel. It's the control center. It's the engine, it's the computer, it's all that stuff, whatever you want to call it.

But you, your mind, you, you, you, your personality, you're the one that controls the brain. It's not even a control, like do this, do that. You work together.

You know, your body, your mind, your brain, unconscious mind, your conscious mind, your toenails, you know, it's all one. But there's different parts do different things. So, by thinking about something, so you're not actually saying to your brain, now I'd like you to think, to have these personal, physical sensations.

I want you to imagine my knees becoming hairy. I don't know why you would want to imagine your knees becoming hairy. That sounds like a bit of a strange thing to be doing, but each to their own.

I'm not one to judge. Unless, of course, you want to imagine that your knees are getting hairy, then I will judge, actually. Sorry.

There's a line, there's a line I won't cross. Leave your knees alone. They're hairy enough.

So, if you, I don't have any hairs on my knees. But the opposite is also true. You focus on a negative, or just an unpleasant experience.

And you're telling your brain, we want more of that, please. A bit more of that, please. And the more you think about that, the more your brain realizes, oh, that's what you want.

And it starts to give it to you. A little bit like the YouTube algorithm, or adverts on Google, or Facebook. You know, I mean, there are times that I just get either, the more, yeah, the more you look for something, or you click on an advert, or you click on something, the more of that stuff you get, don't you, on Facebook, and also YouTube.

I mean, I couldn't believe it. On YouTube, the other day, I was just doing a little bit of research. It's a little bit, I like to educate myself, if I can.

Always, you know, even at this advanced age of 900 years old, I'm still looking to learn new things. So I spent, I don't know, a day, decided I'm going to learn a different subject. This was about, about three weeks ago.

Okay. I'm, even now, even though I've not really, you know, I'm just gone back to my normal kind of viewing. I'm still getting inundated with hand expression, lactating videos, you know, self-expression tutorials.

I was like, stop sending this stuff to me. But YouTube is very much, it's like that. If you look at something, you look at a few videos, or maybe a few hundred, and it just gives you more of that.

And that's how the brain is. It's kind of like an algorithm. It learns from what you do, what we do.

And it just expects that what we think about is what we want to think about more. And when you realize that, when you realize that our brain work kind of similar in some ways to the YouTube algorithm, or the Facebook advertising algorithm. I mean, the amount of, um, what are they called? Okay, there's penis enlargement adverts on Facebook.

Like continuously. I don't know why. I don't.

Annoying. And anyway, so yeah, I just got come up one pop up now go away. Okay, that's a good price.

Wow, 80% discount. All right, I'll save that one. So it's right.

I think that's quite interesting. I know this is supposed to be boring, but I think I've just broken that rule and become super interesting. Instantly.

The algorithm. Maybe I should use the Facebook algorithm or the YouTube algorithm as a you know, it could be Instagram, it could be TikTok. I don't really go on TikTok.

But I guess it's the same for TikTok. If you show an interest in I don't know. I don't know what the the latest trends are on TikTok.

But let's say it's hang gliding and eating a full English breakfast at the same time. I don't know. dressed as a chicken.

So whatever the latest craze is. If you go on to them, maybe go on to cut the videos, suddenly, you're going to be sent loads of those videos. Or maybe you're into something a bit more obscure.

Something that may be you didn't even know there was a lot of stuff about that. So on YouTube, if you go to Yeah, if you put in 1970s sitcoms, and full episodes, let's say steps, Steptoe and Son, or sorry, which was with Ronnie Corbett, full episodes, and they'll come up, and you might find some. And then those YouTubers start like, sending my face, when I say sending them, they're not actually, you know, knocking on the door.

So we had have another episode here you'd like to look at it, but they're pushing it, you know, kind of look, look, look at this. And I end up seeing stuff that I didn't even know was on YouTube, and old TV shows that I've not seen for decades, some that I'd even forgotten about. So the, if you think about it like this, the way you think about the memories that you think about from the past, you're just generally what you're thinking about, what you think about is almost like a command to your brain to give you more of that.

But it's very subtle, or subtle. I think the B is silent. I think some people do use the B. What did I hear someone say the other day? They said a word, but they said it wrong.

They used, there was a silent letter, and they used a silent letter. I mean, in this country, where I come from, and H is silent in house. But yeah, I guess it depends where you're from.

What was that word? I'm forgetting. I'm forgetting what the word was. I mean, that could be part of how, why, how, why, it's not even a proper sentence, is it? How and why, maybe? Listening to me helps.

Now, it could, you know, that could be, it could be the reason that you can experience a sense of relief, a sense of calmness. And, you know, just by relaxation, it reduces any physical discomfort by pretty much 50% there, straight away. Just from relaxing, without even any kind of focus on, you know, any kind of technique, or particular special process, thinking process, or, you know, without doing anything.

Just relaxing can have a super positive effect. Not just a positive, but a super positive. Now, I'm not really sure what super positive means.

I guess it just means it's positive, and you feel super about it. So, if someone says, how positive do you feel? So, you're positive. Well, how do you feel about feeling positive? I feel super.

I don't know, maybe, maybe it's the wrong word. No, it still feels right, feels right. So, what you think about is almost affecting, it's telling your brain to think more about that stuff.

So, technically, you could, if you've got a part of your body that you, you can remember, felt fine in the past. Let me think, how would that be useful? You see what I mean? You can imagine that part of your body, how relaxed it felt. Maybe it's 20 years ago, maybe it was yesterday, maybe it was 30, 40, 50 years ago.

Just a memory that you have, maybe lots of different memories. And the thing about it is, I don't know about you, but daydreaming is quite nice. Just having a little bit of a fantasy, a little bit.

I just had a fantasy then, but just letting your mind wander a bit, but semi-focused. So, you're, you're letting your mind wander. So, it's a fantasy with a semi, you know, you're there with a semi focusing on past times when that part of your body, maybe a particular part of your body felt really, really comfortable.

But not just one time, but multiple times. Thinking only of positive events from the past, which, if you're 3000 years old, like me, there'll be plenty of times to think about loads of past memories where it's not even a case of like, it could just be that part of your body felt fine. Okay.

So, with me, it's my lower back. I can remember times when I felt relaxed. It's not, it's not that I'm saying, oh, think of a time when you felt like really amazing in that part of your body.

Because I don't have any memories of me ever walking around screaming with ecstasy because my lower back felt so great. Like, you know, running around, oh, everyone, my back, oh, oh, it feels amazing. It's like a cloud tickling me.

It's, you know, it's never, it's never felt that good. I mean, I just felt nice and relaxed. And there's definitely relief and release and a sense of pleasure.

I've got, I've got this tendency of, it becomes a little bit itchy inside, not itchy needing to scratch it. But there's that little point where inside, it's just a little bit, a little bit itchy. And sometimes, as I focus on it now, it changes straight away.

It's that little itchiness inside that body part. As I said, you don't need to scratch your skin or anything like that. It's a different kind of itch.

It's, I guess, more pleasurable when itches are more pleasurable when you scratch the monthly. That's the pleasure you get from scratching an itch. This is, it doesn't need scratching.

Maybe, maybe it's the itch after it's been scratched. Maybe it's that feeling, that feeling of, oh, oh, I mean, whatever sound you make. I mean, you might sound like a hyena.

I don't know. You may be a hyena. But it takes all sorts, you know, I'm here for everyone.

And I'm still focusing on my lower back. Whenever I focus on inside that, that little itchy side, a little itchy feeling, doesn't need scratching. But when it's inside my lower back, my lower back feels fine.

You feel fine when that feeling's there. So I suppose an exercise you could do is just spend a bit of time. And we could do that now.

Just spend a bit of time thinking about times when, you know, let's focus on one particular part of your body. If you like, where that itch is. That part of your body felt completely relaxed.

And it could be recently. You can go all the way back to maybe a time before when there was never, ever any issues at all with that part of your body. And just focus on how it felt.

And then think different times when you perhaps were in a really good mood. You were enjoying yourself. There was physical pleasure, maybe.

Yeah, mix your imagination so you can think of any, any situations you want. Oh, yeah. I didn't think about that.

So yeah, you can really think of some interesting memories. I'm going to test this. I'm not going to tell you what I'm thinking about.

And you won't know by, you know, because obviously you, it's in my brain. But I think about something while I focus on my lower back and see if it helps at all. And I think it's like a personal memory.

But you know, I'll keep it secret so you won't know what it is. I can't make it any bigger. It's as big as it gets.

Stop focusing on size. Come on. What do you mean you're disappointed? That's the longest I've ever gone so far.

So yeah, I've drifted off a bit there. So yeah, so as I was silently imagining that memory, that pleasant memory, yeah, my lower back feels very, very loose. Very loose.

In fact, it feels like, yes, almost like there's not even any blood in there. It's weird. Well, my chair just rattled.

I feel quite tired now. But yeah, you can just think about stuff during the day. You don't need me.

I mean, I could technically, by spending some time focusing on pleasant experiences, it might be easier when I'm not, when you haven't got me talking in the background. But at the same time, you may notice or discover that something different has happened. And you may not know why.

You may not understand how listening to me, just talking, could be of any benefit. How listening to a recording like this can actually have a positive impact on your well-being, how you feel. Right now, how you feel differently.

How the physicality, those physical sensations change as you relax more and more. So I think it's time for me to have my breakfast. I'm going to have some ready break.

So when I finish this, I'm going to go into the kitchen put the kettle on, put some fresh water in the kettle, put the kettle on, and then make sure the bowl's clean. So I'll rinse the bowl out. The bowl's clean, but I'll rinse it out.

I always have to rinse out bowls before I use them. And put some milk in, stick that in the microwave for two minutes and 20 seconds. Then I'll wait until the kettle's boiled, put a tea bag into my mug.

I don't wait until the kettle's boiled all the way. Sometimes I put the tea bag in before the kettle's boiled. And then I pour the water onto the tea bag, into the cup.

And then what I do is I just pour a little dash of milk in there. So the tea can, you know, tea bag and the milk could all kind of, you know, work its magic. And then I go into the bathroom and make myself look beautiful.

And then 10 hours later, the milk's cold. It's weird. I just do my little things, you know, do wee-wees, brush my teeth, clean my face, admire, admire myself in the mirror for a few minutes.

It's hard not to really, especially with all those mirrors I've got. The ones on the ceiling, it's very strange being in a bath and seeing yourself on the mirror, in the mirror rather than on the ceiling. What a strange place to put a mirror.

That's what the council people said when they came to look at the flat, to see what I'd done with it. What a strange place to put a mirror, they said to me. I said, it's not that strange.

I said, we've never, you know, I've been doing this job for what, 23 years and I've never seen anyone put a mirror on their bathroom ceiling. I said, well, I don't need permission, do I? She said, no, you don't. But you've just never seen anyone do it before.

I said, okay. So she said, no, so nothing, just thought I'd mention it. So now tell me something nice.

What do you mean? I used to do that with my friend. Whenever he said something negative, I'd say something, now say something nice. So he said, if he told me something he didn't like, I said, now tell me something that you do like.

Used to wind him, wind him up, it did. Right, I'm going to go. That might be something that you could do, or we all could, might benefit from it.

So whenever we catch ourselves being negative, force ourselves to think or to say something positive. Almost like as a little punishment. So thank you for listening.

Remember to be kind to yourself, because you do deserve to be happy. Be gentle with yourself. You deserve to feel safe.

Lots of love. Bye.