Building Bulletproof Backs Ep 1 - Ascend the Pain with Kay Savory

Episode 1: Ascending the Pain Podcast : Building Bulletproof backs 

Show notes: 

Welcome to the First ever episode of Building Bulletproof Backs podcast. 

This podcast aims to empower listeners with HOPE that healing is possible when you know how. We discuss strategic tools addressing mental, physical and emotional Health.

To Build your own Bulletproof Back go Here
To  Support this show  - buy me a Coffee !  

I am your host, Marion McRae, a physiotherapist & movement addict on a mission to see the existing model of treating back pain evolve. The current model is broken. It focusses almost entirely on the physical body, neglecting the fact that we are all both thinkers and feelers. When the thoughts in our head, and the the emotions in our bodies are less than optimal, we fail to thrive. 

Our Guest for the first episode is my long term physiotherapy client, and now friend, Kay Savory - who shares her story of how her decision to “not suffer” led her to find her greatest salvation tool - Ascension Meditation. 

In this podcast episode, she shares with us how she clawed her way out of the rut, and is now able to co-exist with reduced pain, has withdrawn from some of her prescription medication, and has found inner joy and peace - regardless of her pain status. 

Kay’s tools: 

1. Use Mental strategy to redefine your relationship with the pain 
2. Stop labelling things, so that the relationship with it also drops. 
3. Start meditating -Kay’s preferred method - Ascension meditation. Goto https://www.thebrightpath.com/ to learn more. 
4. A core belief which serves her well “The body reacts to the mind and the mind reacts to the soul” 

Kay’s Top 3 tips 

1. Research as much as you want to, but within a limit. 
2. Find a meditation practice that works for you. 
3. Go on a journey to find a different way. Be open to knowing there is one. 

Links : 

Ascension Meditation - Bright path website -https://www.thebrightpath.com/
Marion's Book and Courses - Building Bulletproof Backs

Time stamp : 

The source of kay’s back pain[ 0:58]
 Kay, a beautiful bird caught in her own body's trap[4:35]
 Kay’s search for the key to open the trap door, shift in mindset [5:25] Mental strategy to redefine the relationship to the pain [6:45]
 The mental redefinition of disease as just a label [7:24]
 Using Ascension Meditation as a new rout

Transcript

spk_0:   0:05
welcome TTO building bulletproof backs where we redefine the mainstream medical approach. Teo Healing Stubborn back pain Joint physiotherapist and movement attic. Mariam McRae on a mission to end the back pain epidemic. Building bulletproof backs requires mental, physical and emotional strategy. Hope is not enough. Listen now, as she interviews rial life back pain sufferers who have found a way out of the nightmare and introduces you tow leading edge teachers with powerful tools that can change your life. You can do this. Your body knows how to heal. You just gotta learn how to get out of its way. Now let's get into today's episode. All right. Hey, welcome to the very first ever building bullet proof proof Proof comes. Say it, building bulletproof backs Podcast. I know you and I have had discussions before about the concept, and I wanted you to be the very first client on because when we had our little catch up a few months ago, when you were talking to me about withdrawing medication under GP assistance and your decision to do that, I remember thinking, Wow, like, Well, that's a huge move and a move you could only really take if you felt you had support tools in place that would allow you to do that. So before we get to that, let's backtrack and just let me know and start to talk to me about your back pain journey.

spk_1:   1:46
Thank you. OK, I will. A started experiencing neck pain really just over 12 years ago and eventually got diagnosed with osteo arthritis, which presented its really bad neck pain and migraines. Of course, I was offered medication. That was the first cab off the rank, really, and then just experienced more back pain and it eventuated as down my shoulders than my arms. And I started dropping things, So I knew something wasn't right. I ended up going for a memory and they found that I had compression in my spine and I had to undergo major surgery and removal of a spur because it was impinge ing my nerves right. I then thought that things would get better. I was trying to manage the best eye good, but medications seemed to bay getting more more or I needed more on DH. I I was thinking that after the surgery I would be able to cope. Things would be better Yeah, they weren't right, Got worse and was eventually told that I had chronic neuropathic pain from nerve damage. Right. So I couldn't reduce any medication, and I was offered a lots of s so called assistance. I was told that I should be lying down for 20 minutes every hour. I was told that I would have to retire from my job. I was told that the only way that I could really cope was to go on even more medication.

spk_0:   3:49
How did you feel in all of that? I was losing

spk_1:   3:54
my ability to cope. In actual fact, my I'd always been able to do so much and to be told that that was the only solution. I had to stop doing all the things I like doing because they heard that it the pain was extreme. And it was constant. So I really didn't know which avenue to take from there on DH. The fact that the medication was making me very folky, I lost my confidence. I lost my my posture. I looked weak.

spk_0:   4:40
Yep. I remember meeting you as a client in there for the very first time, and I remember being blown away by how little movement you had, you could not move your chin more than five degrees left Orion. And I remember thinking, how does a spy and get that frozen that frozen? That that's as good as it gets in terms of range of motion. And I also remembered looking at you and looking kind of behind your eyes and just I had I had this this impression of you is this beautiful bird court in a gilded cage like you wanted to get out. But you literally couldn't. Your body was keeping you trapped. And the challenge for me is a clinician for you. When I was driving home, that day was sinking. What the hell do we do in a spine that's that frozen and that? You know, there were reasons we couldn't actually get your joints to move because off your reactions to the surgery and we knew you were non surgical. So, you know, for me personally, I was thinking, I don't know if I've got any other tools that we can offer you because you had Yeah, I didn't hold much hope to be honest for you, I was never going to tell you that this's drinky. Yeah, so would you. Well,

spk_1:   6:12
I came to the decision that if there was no other solution, I had to find one on DH that really started my journey. My search, I would say So my search began and I looked everywhere and I read everything on I watched everything on pain management and I'd had injections in my neck as well. On DH, they'd have to stop. So I then had to realise, Okay, there was only one person that could do this. And it was May. So I had to go to a different level based here. Yes, on DH. After reading everything and realising that my relationship to my pain had to change if I was going to be in charge, I really needed to let go.

spk_0:   7:06
That's the irony. Hey, what I didn't want what did economy of thinking and that well, that what you've put in there is a mental tool that you know, when we talk about how do we begin this journey of moving towards healing with It's not just about the body. There's a great quote I only heard recently, which says the body reacts to the mind. Onda mind reacts to the soul. And when you look at that hierarchy, you know you can't just approach back pain from a physical aspect. We can. But it's not that successful. When it's persistent, constant and deteriorating. You've got to bring something else to the table. So it sounds like your first tour was a mental strategy to redefine your relationship with the pain.

spk_1:   7:50
Yeah, okay. My relationship to the pain came from when I was diagnosed with chronic neuron neuron e neuropathic pain. Thank you. And I thought, I've got this for the rest of my life and it was a label on DH. I had to realise that it was just a label. Somebody had told me that that's what I had. And I thought, OK, if I have to live with this every day for the rest of my life, I still have a lot of living to Dodo and I made a decision to stop some of my pain medication because it wass not helping my lifestyle. It'll really and it wasa long journey. And it was tough, and I found that I could do it if I didn't label things. So talk to

spk_0:   8:54
us about that. Give me an example of that.

spk_1:   8:56
Okay. Dropping the label meant that the relationship to it wasn't going down that track. So not going down that trackers. I had to find another place that I could be without having labels on anything. Not just the pain, but how I stood, how I dealt with my life, how I got out of bed in the morning on all of those things. So, yes, I have pain. Do I have to suffer it? No, I don't.

spk_0:   9:26
Yeah, that's the big thing. Isn't enjoy ce the choice in the reaction to it And you know, very easy from someone who isn't in back pain. What would your response have, Bean Teo a physio Who told you in those dark? Depressing when you were in it if a physio had said to you. Okay. You know, I know you're in pain, but you have a choice. Is to any suffer or not? What would have been your

spk_1:   9:53
reaction? I would have heard it, but I wouldn't have believed

spk_0:   9:56
it. Interesting. Okay. Reacted negatively to it. Possibly. Yeah,

spk_1:   10:02
I would I would have thought You don't understand. You don't know where I'm at, and I think It's everybody's choice, and it's everybody's Joanie. But I can tell you that if you make a decision not to suffer pain, you can go down. A different track on my track was meditation.

spk_0:   10:22
Yep. So tell me about that. How did you discover meditator? I tried everything. It was Was it the last? I wouldn't say

spk_1:   10:30
it was the last call, but I thought, Well, I can't stop my mind. How do I stop this going through my head? Okay. And I then heard about a meditation that told me that I didn't have to stop my thoughts.

spk_0:   10:43
Beautiful. Because we've discussed this. When I suggest meditation as a tool to people, the most common responses I've tried. I can't do it. My mind doesn't stop, you know. And the irony is, they're the people who need it the most, but yes. So what? What technique or what? Style of meditation sold.

spk_1:   11:05
You okay? I was very fortunate. And again, I think the journey was meant to go the way that it went on. I found what's called Ascension. Meditation. Okay. And it's amazing tool that really gave me back joining contentment, I would say Yeah. When I learn And it was a weekend course, right? When I learned I went with trepidation.

spk_0:   11:33
Did you? What is your fear? Can you remember?

spk_1:   11:35
I thought that perhaps I won't be able to do it right. It's not going to work. Yeah. What

spk_0:   11:44
were you seeking from it, though? When you thought it's not gonna work? What were you looking for? It toe work on

spk_1:   11:49
to get rid of the

spk_0:   11:50
pain. So you were trying, Teo, Remove pay. Yeah, right.

spk_1:   11:54
And the meditation taught me that I didn't need

spk_0:   11:56
Teo. Really nothing for you. But it's helped you coexist in a whole new way. Interesting. Completely

spk_1:   12:08
on DH. That's what I think is so lovely for people to discover for themselves. There is a place that you Khun Bay. It's very secure. It's very safe. I have it with me all the time. On the pain is just my companion. That's there.

spk_0:   12:22
Yeah, well and so how long did it take you practising this form of meditation to get to that space, though? Well, what was your initial like? Did you have Teo create a discipline in accepting that you were not great at it and it was going to take awhile, Or was the journey a little bit different? I would say that

spk_1:   12:42
the first you do it on the first evening, you do one practise. And that one practise showed me that I could distance myself and I could find that space. Okay, so yeah. Yeah, and it wasn't trying to stop them a title, but I just wasn't hanging on to them, right. They were just coming and going. Okay, so the fact that I had found it on the first night there and then you made me quite inquisitive festival where the journey was going

spk_0:   13:13
Perfect. Great. And then how long would you say before you felt this was a really viable, useful portable tool Cheap that you could take anywhere, using any moment as your sort of number one thing that you can hold on doing and use? All right.

spk_1:   13:35
My journey went along. It was a weekend course. They asked you to practise the meditation for 20 minutes a day, three times a day, and to create the habit and to know that you have the ability to find the space. They asked for you to do it for six weeks. I was sold after the first weekend. Fabulous. Yes. Yes. And the practise has shown me that my life can be what I wanted to pay without labelling things on without trying to get rid of something that I know is going to be there all the time.

spk_0:   14:16
And do you know that for sure That

spk_1:   14:18
I do now, but it doesn't. It seems to be like my thoughts rake and watching, right? And it can come and go. And I don't think well, is it going to be worse than yesterday? Or is it going to be better tomorrow? I stay in this moment and I know that this moment is what I have to really create the space on DH to be comfortable s o.

spk_0:   14:47
Because I think there's this plane. And then there's an escalation of the pain. Depending on the thought that it touches to it, you've got it. And so the fear off those thoughts and the classic ones are always going to be like this. Does this mean for the rest of my life I can't do the things that I love, you know? Is this going to affect my financial capacity? You know, I cannot be the parent. I want to pay those questions, which really no one knows thie. They fuel or feed thie anxiety, the frustration, the anger and certainly from a neurobiology perspective, we know that pain is a signal in the brain that perceives that input. But when you attach a negative emotion to it, the perception of the pain goes high and vice versa. So it seems to me from listening to you that the meditations been a tool for you. Teo, step back from your thoughts and so bypass that whole circuit your most. It doesn't mean

spk_1:   15:50
that you don't do anything else. It's made me aware that I do need officio, right. I exercise a lot. I do yoga to my capacity. Yeah, I don't push myself beyond my capacity, but I stretched myself so that it might body benefits. My mission is to stay mobile perfect on DH that because my practise Aiken do also with my eyes open. That can help me through my day as well. So if I get into a tricky situation, or if I feel that it's going to be a bit off a situation where pain is goingto present itself, my eyes open practise really helps me without this. Well, yeah. Wow. So it's really it is stopping the labelling and also being present in the moment.

spk_0:   16:45
Yeah, that's huge one, isn't it? Another thought that comes to mind is depression is when we look to the past and anxieties when we look to the future. But in that stillness of the present moment, there's nearer. And so So you're using your mind to be able to do that. Yet have you had much experience with using your physical senses? So you know how your body feels in a chair. We're smelling in the moment what you're seeing visually in the moment what you're tasting in the moment. You know, like I'm coming to this place of thinking Our sensors are God's gift to bring us back to pleasure, to bring us back Teo the moment.

spk_1:   17:25
Yet I really think that I'm a finally engineered toe.

spk_0:   17:31
Well, angry, I would agree on. It's the only

spk_1:   17:35
one I've got. Yeah, so I have to take care of it yet, and I have to use it to the best of my ability. And I am so blessed that I'm here and that I've got it whereas in my darkest moments, I didn't want to be here a total on

spk_0:   17:51
I think that's a common friends of completely natural thought, isn't it? Because if you thought you were locked in that for the rest of your life and deprived of all those fun, pleasurable activities, I get it again. I would probably I would definitely think the same way.

spk_1:   18:05
And the thing is that really every day is a blessing on DH when I I do have my sense isn't a CZ you say my body Definitely on. I concentrate on the bits that don't know. Yeah, And I'm just so thankful that I could do a CZ. Muchas Aiken do? Yeah. So my journey really now is journey to bliss. Beautiful, eh?

spk_0:   18:28
So when did you make the decision? Teo? What's your medication status At the moment?

spk_1:   18:32
I'm on very limited. I do take Lyrica for nerve pain, but that's going to be my next one that we're

spk_0:   18:39
talking. What did you choose to withdraw from first?

spk_1:   18:44
Tramadol After 12.5

spk_0:   18:46
years. Oh my God. Oh my. That's huge. And your GP by the sounds of it was amazingly supportive and amazingly useful. on DH. So tell me about your GPS reaction When you went in and said I want to withdraw from some of my medication.

spk_1:   19:06
He was very supportive. Hay is amazing, gp and I thought I was doing so well on DH. Obviously came off a little bit too early. Esso. I did have a complete crash, right? But with my teaching my ascension meditation, we always have teachers as a back up, right? So I always have somebody there. I can talkto has a great That's a

spk_0:   19:33
great thing. And that's free. Absolutely cost a dime. No views. So all right, What a great tool.

spk_1:   19:41
I pay for my first fear where when I learned a grand total of about $500 Well, and I have literally a lifetime off being able to be with teachers or have teachers. Yeah, and to repeat this much as I want. So that's that's just amazing to me, having a GP as well. My teacher actually said to me, You need to talk to your GP so they don't just push anything away when I talk to my GP who has also helped me and said Meditation is a great door Yeah. Hey, help me through The next was 3 to 6 weeks. But I didn't take Tramadol again, and I haven't had it since.

spk_0:   20:26
Wow. And did you notice, as you say, as you wished her a spike in pain or no

spk_1:   20:29
spiking mom again? I didn't label him I could've, Right, Yes, but I saw it there. Yeah, I saw my reaction. Teo and I found different ways that I could cope with. Yes, I did meditate a lot. Yeah, and I did a lot of eyes open meditation through a scale. But I knew that I had the strength there on. I knew that I have that stillness within me that would help me. It did.

spk_0:   20:58
Let's talk about then, beyond using meditation as a tool for you too co exist. Have you had no doubt when you meditate, Mohr you build thiss deeper connexion to what I will refer to as spirit on DH. This is nothing religious. This's just acknowledging that we are physical bodies with a soul, internally or through us. And we have a brain that thinks a swell. What do you feel by developing that connexion to a deeper level? Do you feel there was an element off it guiding you two, maybe classes or therapists or other people with storeys. You know, that helped you on your journey, It completely. And can you give me, you know, doesn't come to mind when we talk about that, there's lots a week, a lit room

spk_1:   21:57
service and the universe just provides it for May. It was one of those things that if I needed to have a massage, somebody was there to give me a massage. Georges, if I needed to go for a swim, somebody would you invite me to a Paul if I needed to sleep more? When I go to meditate, I would go to sleep easily s so really the universal. It's after it. I don't have to.

spk_0:   22:34
That's right, so but it's developing a trust. It is competitive. It's letting go on allowing that. And it's hard to do that when your connexion is a little bit erratic and a little bit new. But the benefits of constant practise is that beyond using it as a tool, what I see it is also helping years, acknowledging that if you do need, you know, an austere path or a masseuse or a movement class. It's going to benefit you. You'll know. You know you need to see in any moment because that person will resonate with you when you hear the name or when you and this is where we go. A bit wound. But I don't care. I've heard it from clients time and time again, And what frustrates me with our current approach is that we completely ignore the fact that we are spiritual beings and quantum field mechanics is now catching up. Science is catching up Tio spirituality, but that's going to be a 20 something years before the mainstream medical model will accept most of these current research articles. So in the meantime, part of this mission of this podcast is to have people start Teo, open up to the fact that in any moment you have spiritual guidance available to you. If you sit still enough for long enough to listen and you know one of the best things building your pathway to meditation, I feel it's just getting on in nature and sitting under a tree for five minutes and then e don't think it takes much. You've got to just let that initial Connexion developed and then fuel it and feed it.

spk_1:   24:10
I completely agree, because if I hadn't have found it, I don't know where I would have bean. But the change was the choice that I made. Yeah, the change that I knew that there was a different way and I had to be a bit strong enough, unable to be open and trusting to find it. And that's where the universe guided May. And yes, I could feel it in my heart. I'm not saying it was easy and I wouldn't tell anybody with pain that it's easy but to find a different way, you do have to drop all of that labelling and conditioning and be able to let go and be open enough to see what does present itself on If you conduce that there is an amazing life. Therefore you with pain or with no pain. Eso it, Khun b there for everybody. But you have tohave the trust and know that the universe can guide you to words. What? You need the right time

spk_0:   25:24
yet So would you say now moving forward? Where do you see your ability to continue? Teo Progress? I will

spk_1:   25:37
progress on my mission really is to help other people progress,

spk_0:   25:41
right? Because, well, that's why we are a lie. That's exactly what you're the 1st 1 sitting in the well, the whole thing

spk_1:   25:49
really was. I've got to the stage that I didn't feel I was any use to anybody, and that's very debilitating to anybody. So I've come this far. I've learned this much. I know that it can be found on DH. I can show people that they have the choice. It is their choice Which way they go. Yes, I found Ascension. Meditation. Yes, it's easy. It's simple. It's effective. So naturally, that's going to be the way that I'm going to go. Yeah, and if I can teach somebody else some way to find meditation, do it. Read things. Be open, open to learn on. Open to having fun with life again.

spk_0:   26:34
Yeah, because when the fun comes, you know, pleasure and fun are healing. You know, they're the biochemistry of rapid healing. And, you know, the opposite is also true. So simple things actually have huge impact. And I love that meditation is a tool. Is portable is cheap. It doesn't cost you anything. Can access at any time in any moment and beyond using it for your pain. It enriches your life, I think is what you're saying. It is so that the pain storey becomes such a small aspect of your data day existence that it almost fades.

spk_1:   27:15
The littletons. Yeah, it is. Stop listening to what your mind saying because you might will tell you things. It will play tricks on DH. Really? They're just thoughts. Definitely. They last 10 to 20 seconds of Nick's gone on. I can tell you that most of the thoughts you have today you'll have tomorrow. So why worry about that

spk_0:   27:37
anyway? And I like to think of thoughts as a radio station. Doyle. Yes. So I noticed. When I mean Ripper mood, they thought awesome. I'm invincible. I could do there. Someone sign up and 100 commoners. You know, whatever. I could do anything when I mean elevated state When I nosedive. Energy drops at the end of the day. Dinners there haven't done the shopping laundry, you know. Oh, my goodness. The changing thought. You know, I'm a terrible mother. I've done this. I'm this. I'm guilty, you know? Oh, my goodness. And just being able to notice the association between the emotional state and the thinking. There's power in just that because you khun step out of it and save what radio station and my tuning into right now. And I don't want that one up for these thoughts because thes elevated thoughts make me feel differently. And the feelings and the emotions are a really good indicator of where we're at full stuff. So we've got so many choices state we

spk_1:   28:32
have on also I think it's find it for me. It's finding the silence behind the thoughts that has been nice on DH. Life is amazing. You can see it all happening on DH. Life comes to you for May I found that I am or open to a ll the things that come to me. And yes, I have bad days. And yes, they have days that I need to be alone. That's fine. But I don't beat myself up. And I also don't label that that's the way that things need to be a s. Oh, yes. So it sze Well, life is hectic. I've got so much more happening in my life now because I'm willing to trust that everything's going to be okay. Yeah, on DH. My pain is just what it is. And yet, yeah, life goes on.

spk_0:   29:25
I love it. So we're going to wrap up. But before we do, I would love you to tell me where anyone listening confined Mohr information about essential meditation. I think they have a website, don't

spk_1:   29:36
they? D'oh! It's www dot the bright path dot com.

spk_0:   29:43
Okay? And I'll put that in the notes. A duchess's

spk_1:   29:45
family, his podcast. And the other thing is, if they go to Eventbrite, which is even e nt b r e the bright path that will give you all of the upcoming courses that we d o great. And, as I say, $500 investment is a lifetime.

spk_0:   30:06
Using that such good value, you'd spend more in that on pain. Men's one month one way, you know, you know, to think that you have access to that and the teachers for a lifetime actually demonstrates to me the integrity and then genuineness off the teachings on, and they're not out to make coin. They're actually on the spiritual, do exactly

spk_1:   30:24
the way we teach in lots of different places, and we offer it to lots of different people. But I can tell you that was the best. $100.

spk_0:   30:34
Fabulous. And so final question. If you think of Mei a somewhat. If you think of me as you eight years ago or someone in equivalent pain in those dark, depressing places, what advice would you give me And maybe three things made? Three top tips.

spk_1:   30:53
Okay, I would go on a journey to find a different way

spk_0:   30:58
or open myself to the possibility that there is a way out or a way to find joy and peace and love again

spk_1:   31:04
differently. I would research as much as you want to, but there is a stage that you come to that You have to stop doing all of that and find a meditation practise that works for you.

spk_0:   31:18
Beautiful. Good. Well, that's it. That sounds beautiful. Give God, That was so pleased for you on the change Physically in you movement, skin tone, smile, expressions. It's all there. You are walking evidence in the benefit of your practise. So thank you for being first guest. Thank you for letting me. It's been fun. Don't. Okay. Excellent. Oh, no. You can get out. I got you one time. That was Brill. Did you enjoy that? I did. I think we've come there, E It was Be interesting to see how it comes out. You can cut out. I'm just gonna think most of us we just keep it always kind of the interruption. B e. I don't mind if it's all over the place. The doctor be. Yeah, well, that that's good to really, isn't it? It's very natural, then. Oh, yeah, I'm not trying to make it harder. Make it polished. It's a view of the real people don't really stuff, so that's us. That's us. Thanks for listening to a building. Bulletproof Backs tto Learn more about Marion's unique eight weeks building a bulletproof back online course. Visit the leak in the show notes. You will receive a step by step system providing mental, physical and emotional strategies for smashing your back pain. Tow the curb. Nothing like this anywhere else on the market. Become your own hero