Louis Zantema
13 January 2020
Louis is a GZ-Psychologist with a great passion for gaming. For him, a game training that offers therapy is the most valuable thing you can develop: especially for pain complaints, which are on the interesting intersection of body and mind. His aim is to make himself dispensable as a therapist.
How is it that having fun can work against pain? Read about the protective brain and how fun can help.
The protective brain
As you may know, the brain plays an important role in pain. Whether your pain is physical, or you're not feeling well. Your brain is trying to protect you. Here are a few examples:
- By making pain, your brain tries to protect you from possible damage to your body.
- By making you afraid, your brain tries to protect you from dangerous things.
- By making a burnout, your brain tries to protect you from continuing in the same way in your work or life.
Pretty handy, that protective brain. Until your brain wants to protect you too much. That's what happens a lot with chronic pain. The brain has become so driven to protect you that it's always causing pain...
Positivity and the brain
Does positivity help with pain? In different ways. When you feel good, your brain works differently than when you don't feel good. For example, it is easier to focus less attention on your pain or problems. Also, when you feel good, your brain creates substances that can make you feel less late.
You could see it this way: positivity makes it much harder for your brain to deal with danger or damage.
How do you become more positive?
Whether you feel positive and satisfied, you can influence yourself to a certain extent. In recent years a lot of research has been done into happiness. The conclusion: not the things we have (money, status, stuff, etc.) make us happy. The way we ourselves stand in life and how we think, influences our happiness the most.
In this video you see how you can train your brain for positivity.