Continuous pain awareness

Lying in bed, you can sense the perpetual tingle of pain as your brain’s focus jumps from one point to the next

Your brain can only really concentrate on one pain location at a time.
If there are several sources, it will switch its attention from one to the other, yet giving precedence to the most acute one.
But, most of the time, you feel no pain.
Or do you?
Continuous pain awareness is the action of lowering your pain threshold to feel pain you would normally remain insensitive to.

Why would you want to do that?

The idea is to groom away those offending fold crossings before they really hurt.
You want to know where you will ache tomorrow so you can take action today.

How to perform
continuous pain awareness

For best results, lie on your back in a calm, silent place.
Close your eyes, clear your thoughts and concentrate on any low level pain you may feel anywhere on your body.
You will sense various locations emitting a mild sting or pinch while your mind shifts from one place to the other.
Place your nail on any of these spots and explore it a bit.
You will immediately find a fold crossing and inside of it, your pain.
Put pressure on it.
Keep on pecking the area.
After a while you will feel another location calling you.

The pain threshold

Degrees of pain

You have your personal tolerance to pain.
You can differentiate between hurting a little and hurting a lot.
But where does pain start? What is the minimum it takes before you say it hurts?
What about an itch? A sting?
Is that pain for you?
Is a minor discomfort an ache?

Your pain threshold

Let’s call the level where pain starts for you: your pain threshold.
Generally, you ignore what is below it and slowly wake-up to what is above.

Your pain threshold may change depending on external and internal pressures, such as stress or being tired.

Humans raise their pain threshold
all their life

You try not to let the pain annoy you.
You go through your activities in spite of it.
Without noticing it, you are raising your pain threshold continuously.
At least, you have peace until it is reached.
Because of a complete lack of grooming, the pain level you feel increases all through your life.
You continuously raise your threshold to compensate.
It is called the weight of the years.

Re-lowering your pain threshold

Low level pain is a warning.
It must be considered and analyzed logically.
Actions to stop the pain's expansion must be taken immediately.
As soon as you ignore an itch, sting, twitch, ... you raise your pain threshold.
You become insensitive.

Tolerance to pain

Pinch the skin of your forearm at various locations with your nails.
Feel the pain?
Good!
Now keep the pressure on a pinch for several seconds.
Feel how the pain fades.

Recurring aches and pains

Your pain returns often to the same places?
It is then called "chronic pain".
Over and over, it is caused by the same fold crossings.
The pain they produce comes and goes because of variations in blood and internal pressures and changes in the surrounding skin tension.
Sometimes it is bad, sometimes liveable, sometimes there is no pain.
You only notice it when it goes past your pain threshold.

Variation in skin tension

Your skin mirrors your physical and mental condition.
Bad digestion, lack of sleep, stress, ..., even natural events, such as menstruations, are reflected in your daily skin condition.
The skin often becomes swollen, increasing the tension on the fold crossings.
External conditions, such as atmospheric pressure, humidity, temperature, ... cause substantial changes in your skin.
Above all, your daily actions and gestures, even while you sleep, challenge your existing fold crossings.
Even holding a strange position for just a few minutes may ruin their balance.
An irritated crossing may hurt a few days while it builds new protection.

Pain attacks

Most of the time, the pain level you feel from a particular fold crossing remains below your pain threshold.
Then, your actions challenge the integrity of the protecting structure the crossing has developed.
You’re in pain.
It may take hours or days for the tensions to redistribute.
The structure has to be repaired and solidified with a new epidermis layer and possibly locking folds.
You grow accustomed to the discomfort.
Sooner or later the pain retreats below your threshold.
These attacks usually lengthen and deepen all your life.
But the duration and severity of each attack depends more on:
-The intensity, force and eccentricity of the actions that cause the attack.
-The particular structural evolution of the challenged crossing(s).