Survival vs Performance Mode

Many people can relate to this concept, especially for people who had a concussion in their life and can’t seem to find a way to get ahead and find improvements in their life.

What is Survival mode?

Think of being in survival mode, as a way of how the brain and body feels when you can’t seem to catch up in life. That there are so many barriers in your life that seems overwhelming and thus making it very difficult and challenging for one to overcome them and find success. It is a feeling where your goals are so far down the road and you either will not risk expending the energy in order to attempt to achieve them or you make the attempt towards it but experience some minor bumps/falls, which causes you to go back to the beginning again. Basically experiencing a downward spiral or cycle for the worse. A 1 step forward – 2 steps back feeling towards your goals.

I have mentioned in a previous blog post explaining that your brain’s #1 job is making sure that you are alive and that your brain is a predictable organ. It is always analyzing how much brain fuel it has for the day and thus will determine how well you can do your objectives/activities throughout the day. If your brain analyzes that your fuel source is very low at any part of the day, then it will bring on any output such as “pain/fatigue/nauseous/dizzy/depression/anxious nociception signal” etc. to the body as a way to say: “I understand that you want to go for a walk/work/socialize etc. but I don’t have the brain fuel capacity/energy to do that activity so as a way for you to not do that activity, I will give you a “Pain signal” or any other symptom listed above in order to have you stop and make a change.

These are the characteristics and behaviour that a typical person being in “Survival Mode” feels like. The brain feels unsafe and would deliver communication signals to the body aka pain or any other symptom described above in order to keep you doing the same routine because it feels more safe and doesn’t need to expend much energy/brain fuel.

Some examples of what it feels to be in survival mode:

Frequently getting injured or re-injuring the same area

Feeling depressed.

Chronic Anxiety, sad, emotionally unstable, Frequently dizzy or nauseous.

Always feeling distracted, disorganized, makes poor decisions

Uncoordinated, poor balance, poor posture.

What is it like to be in Performance Mode?

This is the state of being where everything and anything you are doing is flowing well for you. You are in this state because your brain is analyzing that you have optimal brain fuel/energy, your brain is able to process all the signals that it is receiving such as proprioception, vestibular & visual signals really well. It is able to create better outcomes and you get to achieve your goals faster because there are very few times where you take steps back towards your goals, you are always aligning yourself towards your target in achieving your goals.

The examples of being in Performance Mode is literally the opposite of all the symptoms of being in Survival mode. So you will feel more opportunistic, a risk taker, up to the challenge, feeling more courageous and able to be in a flow state more often.

The great news about about all of this, is that through neuroplasticity, where the brain is able to adapt and change over time, is that YOU are able to change/rewire your brain to be able to overcome from being in Survival Mode. The perfect way to do it is to improve the input signals that your brain receives, in order for it to reduce the “pain/tension” output signals that it has always been giving as an survival mechanism. Once you have discovered what signals you need to improve, then you need to keep on improving those signals and to keep growing on that habit, so that your brain will continue to feel safe. That way you will be more often in performance mode and also you will know how to get back into performance mode more easily if you unintentionally have a minor set back. Neuroplasticity is a remarkable gift that our brains can do, so that anyone can truly overcome from their past trauma/injuries in their life.

Looking for direction on how to improve the input signals that your brain is receiving so that you can actively get out of survival mode and continuously be in performance mode?

One effective way is to Hire a Neuro-Performance Coach. He/she can work with you to help improve those specific inputs that your nervous system is needing in order to help you get out of Survival mode and to lead you to being in Performance mode for good. A Neuro-Performance Coach has the ability to analyse all the different inputs that each nervous system receives (ie: vision, balance, body signals etc.) and provide the appropriate stimulation as a way to rewire the brain to improve and get you to performing better. It is removing the barriers that have been preventing you from reaching your goals and ultimately giving you the opportunity to become a healthier version of yourself.

You can contact Mack to book your free 30 minute consultation:

Email – mack@ntperformance.ca or

Phone – 780-238-6225.

Thank you for reading my content. Please like, share and subscribe if this post resonated with you and you want to learn more. 🙂

Have a great day.

How to be creative?

Have you ever thought of doing chores such as doing the dishes, or the laundry can be both inspirational and easy for you to get your brain’s creative juices flowing?

Yeah, me neither.

However, I can explain through a neurological lens as to why it can be both beneficial and how it can lead you to wanting to do it again and again.

Part of our brain, there is an area which is known as the “little brain”  called the cerebellum.

It is the size of your fist and lives in the posterior and inferior portion of our brain, right underneath the occipital lobe.

This area is activated when you receive any sort of stimulus such as (sensory, vision, smelling etc. ) It will transmit that stimulus from the cerebellum to the appropriate area of the cortex to be processed.

The cerebellum also makes sure that you are accurately receiving the stimulus and that you are moving the body in an accurate manner.  Have you ever had the opportunity for a police officer to observe you walking in a straight line on a late Friday/Saturday evening?  Well he/she is observing how well your cerebellum is functioning, even when alcohol is involved.

Your cerebellum has a strong connection with your vision and balance but most importantly it has the ability to inhibit unwanted thoughts.

Have you ever had moments in your day where you have a negative thought in your head?

Maybe, you wanted to try something new but after trying it for a brief period of time, you are starting to reconsider attempting that new goal?

Or maybe you are having some negative emotions at the time and you seem like you can’t break off or release from that feeling?

All of this is saying that your cerebellum is not doing its job properly and is not inhibiting those unwanted thoughts.

One way to improve the cerebellum is to move your hands/feet/eyes in a coordinated manner.

When you are doing a tedious activity such as washing the dishes or folding your laundry, you are inadvertently providing activation to that ““little brain”” of yours.  The outcome might surprise you, as you might notice that your behavior has changed during this activity.  You might be feeling more creative, more imaginative, being able to solve for answers that have once made you feel stuck.  You will also have your brain limit the negative or unwanted thoughts that you had in the past.   

You get the opportunity to be more focused on how to achieve certain tasks that you find somewhat challenging.

For myself, I didn’t know what I should write about for my next blog post.  I was in a mental block.

However, when I was taking a break from brainstorming about my subject, I decided to wash the dishes.  When I was about halfway completed, I realized how much my mind was flowing with creativity.

It was like all of the questions I had regarding what to write about were answered at this very moment.

I just needed to clean my thoughts and my dishes in order to make it happen.

Everyone receives a benefit from moving their eyes and body, not only in being productive but also they can be more creative and gather more insight on challenging tasks that they have ahead of them.

As an example,

I had a client who survived a stroke, many years ago.  I was there to help improve his strength, movement and coordination of his affected hand and leg.

After seeing him several times, I noticed that he gets extremely frustrated with himself when he can’t accomplish a task.  I had him try and pick up coins from the table.  He got to the point where he was using his ring and pinky finger but it felt impossible to him and led to him feeling angry and that he would give up and quit.

When I finished therapy with him, I noticed that his family left a plate of food for him to eat.  He mainly ate with his fingers, which gave him an incredible amount of sensory and motor activation to his hands and fingers for each bite. 

I noticed in the consecutive sessions afterwards that his ability to pick up the coins had improved immensely and that he wasn’t showing signs of anger anymore.  He became more excited for any challenge I gave him, which improved his motivation and morale to be able to do more activities using his hand.

Another example is that my parents are dog breeders and love to present their dogs to the national dog shows during the summer.  Last week, they mentioned that they have been busy grooming their dogs, which takes about 3 hours per dog and they have 6 Irish Wolfhounds.

So you can imagine the daunting task my parents have to face when clipping and grooming each dog.  I asked them if they felt creative or inspired during that process.  They actually said yes, we talked about our future and made some collective agreements on certain scenarios.

I was delighted when I heard this because not only did this daunting chore of grooming their loved ones allowed their creativity to flow, they were able to make plans about their future in a constructive manner.

The next time that you feel you are in a rut or experiencing a major challenge in your life, remember to take a break from what you are doing and to do something that you have habitually done several times by moving your hands, feet and eyes in a coordinated manner.  

You might get your brain creativity flowing too and be inspired to do more things.  

Just make sure that when you complete that activity,  that you should enhance the dopamine and endorphin effect by rewarding yourself with something that is sweet to taste or something that you love to experience to keep the cycle flowing and to get you excited to do that activity for an infinite amount of times in the future.

Are you looking for more inspiration or need assistance to keep you motivated to achieve your goals? With my 6 years professional expertise in applied neurology, I can help you overcome the barriers that might be holding you back from reaching your goals. You can message me to book a free 30 minute consultation and to see how well we can accomplish your goals together. Email me at mack@ntperformance.ca

Have a great week!

Everyone’s nervous system is unique towards pain and performance.

Everyone’s nervous system is unique, a small portion of it is contributed by genetics but the vast majority of the way you think, move and feel are based on the environment that you are situated in and the information that your brain receives from your environment.

Your nervous system receives information from your environment via your senses (eyes, ears, touch, smell, taste etc.), it then interprets that information and makes a decision on what to do with that information as an output. Based on prior experiences, culture, beliefs etc. of the inputs, your brain will either determine that incoming information is “safe” so that you can continue doing what you are doing or “unsafe” and will deliver a nociception ie. pain output in order for you to make a change. 

Imagine you are walking down a path and you see a dog a few yards ahead. If you have a history of having several encounters with dog(s) that were full of fun, calm and happy experiences being with dog(s), then you know that your behaviour with this dog that you are about to encounter with is going to be not anything different. However, if you unfortunately had a horrible, scary experience with a dog, then your behaviour might be different when you come across this canine. Your walk might change to a more stutter step, or you might feel tense more in your shoulders, neck, hands and/or feet. Your breathing rate might shorten, You might have muscles spasms or pain. You might also find that the emotions that you are feeling inside might be too overwhelming, too unbearable in fact that it will lead yourself to look for a different path to walk on, just so you don’t have to cross paths with this dog.

This is an unfortunate scenario, but it happens to several people who have had traumatic or harmful experiences in their past. Your brain remembers all of the moments that it felt unsafe in your past and if each input signal that your brain receives, consciously and/or subconsciously is reminded of an unsafe event, then it will generate a unique output to the body in order to change what you are doing.

Your brain creates these outputs as described in this example, it also can generate other types of outputs such as a startle response, varying your endocrine & immune levels, change of movement patterns, make you feel lethargic etc. All of these are outputs that your brain generates will take place in order for you to make a change.  It feels “unsafe” for what the body is doing or about to do and it generates these types of outputs as a way to communicate to you to say “we have to stop/ make a change of what we are doing.”

Knowing this, you might be asking, “if my brain is creating these types of outputs habitually, how would I change this so that I can walk calmly and confidently down a street or at any activity that I want to perform well in?”

I would say, “great question! The answer to that, is to modulate the inputs that your brain is receiving.”

After a thorough neuro assessment where I am able to assess how your nervous system functions as a whole, I will be able to gather information of what your brain needs in order receive accurate input activation, in a safe manner. These are the type of inputs that your nervous system consciously and/or subconsciously finds threatening. These types of inputs are unique to you, so that your nervous system can feel less threatened, feel more calm & confident in your own body and will have you be able to perform better at whatever activity that you are driven to do well in.

Some examples of inputs that I will be addressing and to provide training to your nervous system are: sensory activation, vision, hearing, smelling, balance and movement activation, breathing exercises to help improve brain fuel utilization.

As you can see, these types of information are what your nervous system receives as inputs constantly, in order to have you feel and move safely in your own environment. There will be one or many different input signals causing a dysfunction or not receiving accurate information, which then challenges your brain to function optimally in your own environment.

If the brain is confused with these different inputs signals, then it has a small tolerance window, so small in fact, that any additional stimulus/input that your brain receives will cause a “breaking point” or the “straw that broke the camel’s back” to your nervous system, metaphorically speaking.

The great news is that any of these inputs are trainable and your brain has the ability to rewire/retrain to have accurate information again. Regaining and reintroducing accurate signals to your nervous system will allow your brain to have an increase tolerance to handle more things in your day, plus being able to move and perform well, without the fear of being hurt. You are training yourself to become more safe and to be more in-tune to your body and the environment that you move in.

Allow me and my professional expertise to help you grow, prosper, and to show you how your goals can be achieved, all by training your unique nervous system.

Let me know if you have any questions, or how we can work together to help guide you from being in “pain/fear/restriction” mode and to lead you towards and to sustain in “performance/excellence” mode.

Thank you for reading. Please like, share and/or comment, if this post resonated with you.

Mack Rutherford

Have yourself a merry painless Christmas

       Think about a house full of people spending time together on Christmas evening.  All of the appliances are running to cook the delicious turkey dinner, every single light in every room is on, the Christmas lights on the exterior of the house and on the tree inside are sparkling beautifully and bright.  In every room there is a TV displaying a gorgeous fire in a fireplace and all of the music players are playing several holiday favourite songs. 

Everyone in the house is happy, laughing and having a terrific time.  One family member is late getting ready for the dinner party and just finished having a shower. They just turned on the hair dryer and “BOOM”,  all of the power goes out in the house.  It is unknown when the power will be back on and the Turkey is only half way cooked in the oven.  A Christmas evening everyone did not expect nor wanted.

This is very similar to how your brain can convey and communicate to the body.  Blowing a fuse in the house is just like a pain output your brain gives off to the body.  

Your brain is able to handle 7 +/- 2 things at once.  If your brain has any more input then theoretically, your brain will “blow a fuse” and will deliver a pain signal to anywhere in the body. 

Do not fret though, pain is a safety communication tool that your brain creates, in order for the body to stop what they are doing and to make a change.  Your brain’s number 1 job is to keep you alive and if it senses that you are unsafe, then it will create an output of pain anywhere in the body. 

There are several factors that come into play in order for your brain to handle several stimuli all at once, for some people (depending on their stressors, they can only handle 1-2 different stimuli before a “fuse bursts”).

Some factors you can start today in order to increase or maintain the right amount of stimulus, throughout the day are:

1. Making sure you have 7.5+ hours of sleep every night.
2. Making sure you are well nourished, and to eat and consume the types of food that can provide immediate energy to your brain and doesn’t slow down your metabolism.
3. Go for a walk outside, move your body, perform your Neuro Drills (drills that deliberately make your unique nervous system feel awesome again).   These will help keep your brain active and it gives you the ability to maintain adequate stimulus that it receives from your eyes, body, and balance systems.
4. Take time to train your respiratory system by performing breathwork.  Not only will this improve your energy capacity, you will feel more relaxed and all of the psychosocial stressors that are inflicted on you will start to fade away.

These are a few examples you can try to help your nervous system.  You know you are on the right track to live in a pain-free lifestyle when you recognize when your brain is receiving too much stimulus at the moment and you need to make a change, before a “fuse blows.”   

The drills listed above can be your solution to help keep you doing what you love to do, rather than adding barriers and limiting yourself of your capabilities.  By creating good, healthy neuro habits daily, you will create that neuroplastic change in yourself to be able to handle an adequate amount of stimuli all day long.  Fewer moments of blowing the fuse in your nervous system.

Please let me know if you have any questions and follow me for more tips on how you can train your own nervous system to work for you, not against you. 🙂
Thank you for viewing my content, Please let me know if you have any questions or comments. 😀

Have Yourself a Merry Painless Christmas!

Happy Holidays Everyone!

Does your brain currently have a “Blurred Visual Map”?

Are you still experiencing pain from an injury that happened several weeks/months/years ago?

You might be experiencing chronic pain in that area because your brain is seeking an appropriate stimulus to know if that injured site is safe to mobilize again.

If it hasn’t received that appropriate stimulus, then your brain will continue to give that area a pain signal until either:

A) You receive that appropriate stimulus(es) and then able to accurately mobilize that area in a safe manner or,

B) You take pain medication, which will only put a blanket over the symptoms and can potentially be harmful to your internal organs, vestibular system other parts of your nervous system etc. This option won’t actually help the primary issue in the long run, thus leading to unnecessary surgery or worse, adding more barriers to your physical & fitness goals. Or,

​
C) You choose to just “deal” with the pain, refuse to take any pain medication and hope the pain will go away miraculously. However, this way will not only limit your performance, you are also more prone for injuries in the future and are adding barriers from achieving your physical goals

Client Story –

I recently had a client who came to see me because he had pain in his ankle ever since he accidently banged it on a rock when swinging on a rope near an open body of water.

He injured his ankle 3 months ago but the pain still lingered on especially when he walks fast or runs.

I initially talked to him about the modern science of pain. I described to him how damaged tissue should only take a few days to a few weeks to heal. Not 3 months from what he is experiencing.

After an elaborate discussion with him, and gathered enough data from his health history, I asked him if he was experiencing one of the following emotions towards his ankle.

The emotions were either – Fear, Anger, or Suffering.

I then tested an unrelated muscle strength, to get a good understanding of how his nervous system is interpreting any stimulus I give him. I found that suffering was an emotion that has been on his mind when he tried to walk, run or even mobilize his ankle.

After completing the treatment of having him look at his ankle and think about suffering, his nervous system was ready to reset that type of pain stimulus.

I had him run down the hallway afterwards and he said the pain was 100% gone.

He said to me the big break thru he experienced during my treatment session was that when I told him that his ankle is not injured and that injured tissues heal.

So the next time you are experiencing pain, anywhere in your body and you blame that significant injury you had several weeks, months, or years ago. Remember that your brain is giving the body that pain signal not because there is anything wrong or damaged to the tissues but because of the lack of point A) or because you are on the path for point B) or C) as described above.

Remember this:

Pain ≠ Injury and Injury ≠ Pain.

Give your brain the stimulus that it is missing and you will be able to be more stable, more mobile and have less moments of moving into pain.

I hope this post resonates with you. If you know anyone who is in chronic pain please share this post and I can do my best to help them understand that their chronic pain can be resolved, no surgery or medication required. They just need the correct stimulus that their brain is seeking.

Please comment if you have any questions.

Thank you for reading my content.

Vision Training

Vision Training

​There are several names out there for a variety of visual conditions. A few examples are:

Astigmatism
Amblyopia
Far-sightedness
Near-sightedness
Strabismus

or have reading/ visual processing difficulty such as

Dyslexia
Alexia

Or people who cannot stay focused on a task such as ADHD.

Several visual conditions are developed over time or congenital, or after a serious brain injury such as a concussion or stroke.

If you are needing glasses as a tool to see better or if you are challenged by using your eyes everyday then your brain understanding of where you are in space in confusing.

Think of it as your brain has a “blurred vision map”, It has a difficult time to know how to use the eyes appropriately and cannot locate or process as efficiently as it could.

Having a “blurred visual map” can play a massive role in how you think, move, feel, behave, balance and of course see in your environment.

luckily, your brain loves to learn, it is adaptable and wants to add clarity to that once “blurred visual map”. You brain needs to know how to add clarity though.

That is why training your eyes, in specific movements, can add clarity to your “brain’s visual map” so that you will be able to think, move, feel, react, balance and see better in your environment.

The better you get at training these pathways the better you will become. You will be able to train these pathways to move very fast, making them energy cost efficient so that you will be able to perform at your favorite activity more efficient and have less moments of error or fatigue.

Side note – Even if you are experiencing pain at the moment – the better you are able to train your eyes, the more moments you will be without pain. I can explain this in a later post.

Caution – Training your vision can be both rewarding and impactful to your nervous system. Once you know how to train your eyes to make yourself see, feel and move better then there is no looking back 😉

I hope you found this post inSIGHTful. Let me know in the comments what is your favorite eye exercise. Thank you for reading. 🧠💪

Five unintentional changes that I have noticed since following Dr. Ray Peat’s “healing the metabolism” philosophy for the past 6 years.

Five unintentional changes that I have noticed since following Dr. Ray Peat’s “healing the metabolism” philosophy for the past 6 years.

Since following Dr. Ray Peat’s work, 6 years ago, I have had several incredible changes and advancements to my own wellbeing.

My behaviour, my mood and ability to be a critical thinker and communicator has all dramatically improved.

There were several reasons why I decided to follow his work and to intentionally get a better grasp and understanding about my health.

But in today’s post, I want to explore all of the amazing changes I unintentionally discovered about myself from following his work.

1. It might sound strange at first but I literally can wear the same clothes for 3-5 days and it does not smell of body odor or have any sort of foul smell. A great way to save water from washing my clothes. 🙂

2. When I was 12 years old, I fractured my big toe playing soccer. Ever since that injury, my big toe has always looked discolored, cold, numb, unhealthy and didn’t feel like it is part of my body anymore.

After about a few months of improving my metabolism, I started to have feeling in my big toe again and it felt as warm as my other toes. The discoloration went away and I am proud to say that I have my toe back! I know this might not sound like a big deal, but when you have regained feeling of an area that you have been thinking for most of your life that it is dead forever, it is truly an incredible feeling.

3. Prior to making this change in my life, I have been feeling cold, always wearing sweaters (even in the summer), feeling unwell at least every 6 weeks or so and I would be popping cold or pain medication every 1-2 days. Everywhere I go, I would bring my “medicine cabinet” with me.

Now I am happy to say that I haven’t had any type of cold or pain medication for the past 6 years of my life and have saved hundreds of dollars each year. My immune system is working as it should be, it is not hypersensitive anymore.

4. I usually sleep well, but even after a good 8 hours of sleep, I have always looked forward to taking a mid afternoon nap everyday. It was like a ritual for me. However, when I looked into it more, it made no sense why a person in his mid 20’s will need to sleep for an hour mid day, especially when they are not sleep deprived.

That is why, since restricting myself from any type of poly-unsaturated fatty acids and focus more on saturated fats plus sugar has led me to be more energized and always prepared for any type of stressor that came into my environment.

5. This is actually my favorite unintentional change of them all. Being a fitness professional and having the passion to work hard plus have the drive to workout even harder in order to have that image of being fit and healthy. It had taken its toll on me, when I decided that I needed to restrict more calories and just focus on salads and have plenty of seed oil fats. Even by doing that, I still felt horrible and irritable. I was so obsessed with expending the calories and reducing the amount of intake calories as much as possible. My body still seem to store fat in areas that I didn’t want and lead me to burnout because I wasn’t achieving any results from it.

Now that I have become more in tune to my needs when I eat. I don’t need to calculate how many calories I am intaking everyday because I trust my body wholeheartedly when I feel satiated. Plus when I notice that I am feeling a slight change in body temperature, ie. chilly (which is an indication that I am low on fuel) I can easily have a sugary drink or bowl of ice cream in order to feel warm again. I have added the fuel to keep my internal temperature to a more comfortable level so that all of the cells in my body are able to function optimally. ‘

These are a few unexpected wins that I have found in myself since making this change 6 years ago. It has changed me both inside and out. Even though this journey is far from over, I am able to appreciate all of the little changes that has advanced me so far and I plan to dive deeper into this topic of bioenergetics and metabolism healing.

Are you thinking about making some changes towards your health? Discovering the types of food to eat can play a huge role in helping you live in a healthy metabolic and resilient lifestyle. Your brain & body needs to be able to utilize the energy and nutrition that you consume rather than having it to work against you. I can help you stay on course with your health journey and help keep you on pace to achieve the goals that you want to accomplish. Please let me now if you have any questions, I am happy to help.

Thank you for reading my content.

This or That – ice cream products

This or That – ice cream products

There are several brands of ice cream at the grocery store, which one will you pick to have that tasty treat at the end of your hard working day?

Would you pick one that claims it has zero fat, low in calories, somewhat cheaper in price or would you pick one that is nutrient dense, has no processed or filler ingredients and overall tastes supremely better than any other brands?

As “good” as the first one claims it to be, mainly for marketing purposes, you have to ultimately decide which brand has the better value for your brain & body.

When deciding to purchase and consuming any type of product at the grocery store, I always ask myself “Is this item going to improve my metabolism or is this item going to damage it?”

Ingredients such as Cellulose Gum, Guar Gum, Xylitol, Erythritol, Xanthan Gum to name a few are only fillers and additives in order to make the texture of the product similar to ice cream. It is approved for human consumption, however it can do more harm to your digestion system and your overall health in the long run the more often you consume these “toxic” ingredients.

Your brain will need to provide more of its energy towards breaking down all of the “toxic” ingredients that you consumed. This will make you feel more exhausted, more irritable/stressed, feeling cold – especially in the hands, feet and face, you might be sneezing & coughing more often, the list goes on and on.

Sure, it has lower fat and calories but if you consume any product with unnatural fillers and additives then your brain and body won’t be utilizing its daily energy as effectively as it should and you will be feeling more stressed and unproductive in your day.

These are a few examples of symptoms that your metabolism is not working as optimally as it should.

When consuming ingredients that are natural & free from any additives/fillers, can be utilized more as nutrients in our body. It is easier to digest, allowing your brain to utilize the energy to distribute blood flow throughout the body especially the extremities rather than just the midline structures of the body. You will have more energy to do things that you want to do in your day, rather than being forced by your brain to “rest it off” in a stressful state.

Choosing products free of any additives/fillers is a much smarter option for your metabolism and overall health, no matter how hard the producers try to sell their product to you.

I hope you found this content interesting and useful.

Looking for advice and strategies on how you can improve and heal your metabolism? I provide coaching services for anyone who think or diagnosed hypothyroid, have metabolic conditions or who wants to improve their own metabolic health.

If you have any questions or comments please do not hesitate to ask. 🙂

Which road would you perform better on?

Are you still in pain or feel uncoordinated weeks, months, or even years after your injury?

Afraid to reinjure the area, so you tend to approach any activity in a more cautious manner?

There are ways to fix this issue. You have the capability to train your nervous system, to rewire what was damaged from the injury, to regain feeling and to improve the motor coordination of any specific area of the body.

Your brain is receiving and delivering signals throughout the whole body, all the time. During any type of injury, the brain needs to deliver a pain signal to that injured area, in order for you to make a change from what you are doing so that it can effectively rehabilitate the area. Once this happens, the brain has more of a blurred image of the sensory and movement map of the area.

Have you ever driven down a dark foggy road before? Chances are, you are much more cautious and are much slower at driving as compared to driving on the same road on a nice sunny day.

Well that is essentially the same to your sensory and movement map of your brain. After an injury, the area is the dark and foggy road, so your brain is more cautious about moving the area. You are more inclined to have your foot on the brakes. However, after reintegrating and improving the sensory and movement maps, your brain has a much clear understanding of how the area should move and feel. It will be more like driving on a clear sunny day, your foot will be more on the gas pedal, to keep going.

The brain is a remarkable organ as it has the capability to rewire any damaged or dysfunctional sensory or motor signals. So if you have unfortunately had an injury, there is hope!

You don’t have to accept that this is your new life of just managing your symptoms. Your brain can rewire itself, so that the sensory and movement maps of the brain can be much clearer and more detailed than ever.

Continue to manage your symptoms, your brain doesn’t have the opportunity to rewire from the blurred information, resulting that your brain will always be driving that same dark and foggy road, cautiously. However, if you add clarity to the sensory and movement maps, by training and improving these areas, your brain will be able to allow you to drive on the smooth clear road for a very long time.

What do you do daily to improve the clarity of your brain’s sensory or movement map? Please let me know in the comments below or if you would like some suggestions from me. 🙂

​Thank you for reading.

When someone is in pain, I often ask these two questions.

When someone is in pain, I often ask these two questions.

When I see anyone who is in pain and are seeking help to get it resolved,  I always ask them these two questions:

1. What happened during the event?

2. What happened prior to the event?

There is a lot of information I can gather by asking these two questions.  This can give me a better grasp on what areas of the nervous system I should be focusing my attention on. 

For example, I get numerous client’s that comment that they have severe headaches or back pain, but don’t know why? Then they mention that they upgraded their eye prescription to bifocals.  I then give them the realization that by wearing bifocals/trifocals/prisms end up giving your brain a lot of “mixed messages” regarding what they are actually seeing.  If the brain feels confused, it will deliver a pain output as to say “I need you to stop what you’re doing, because I feel unsafe for you to continue, so I will give you a pain signal in order for you to make a change.”

Another example:

 Client – “I always feel queasy and nauseous on boats, elevators, swings, amusement parks.” 

I then ask if any changes happened prior?  

Client – “I had an ear infection 6 years ago.” 

I then will be assessing at how their vestibular and vision systems are working and have the client train those areas, if they reassess well with that type of brain stimulus.

Last example – Client complains of shoulder pain when reaching for the top shelf.  

I ask them if any changes have happened prior to the first time you experienced shoulder pain?

Client – “no, not really…”

I then ask – any tattoos, scars, etc? 

Client – “wait? are you saying my gall bladder surgery has an impact on my shoulder pain?”

Me – “any tattoos, surgical scars etc causes a blurred image to your brain.  If your brain is receiving a blurred image of how your body should move and feel, then your brain will give you a pain output until the blurred image is more clear.”

I then will be assessing the sensory and mobilization of the skin around the scar and reassessing their shoulder mobilization, in order to justify that is in fact the root cause of their pain.

These are a few examples, and there are several more.  I treat everyone’s pain differently and that is because everyone’s nervous system is unique.

Hi my name is Mack and I am a Pain & Brain Rehabilitation Therapist.  If you are experiencing chronic pain and cannot seem to resolve it on your own,  I’ll be happy to see how my wealth of experience and understanding of the nervous system can help resolve it, and for good. 

​You can book a free 30 minute consultation or your neuro assessment consultation on my website  at www.ntperformance.ca. 

​Talk to you soon.

Have a great weekend.