The Pathways Pain Relief app is a powerful tool for those with fibromyalgia and chronic illness. Rather than simply tracking your pain (proven to be unhelpful) this app delivers a greater understanding of pain and its pathways while empowering you to change how you feel.
Can one app do all that?
Read on to check it out for yourself.
Pathways Pain Relief: Multiple Tools – One App
It may sound weird to state that an app can have the power to change your levels of pain. But it’s true. When I was contacted by the great peeps at Pathways, I made assumptions – as we all do.
I read that this was an educational app besides offering the more common features of tracking, monitoring, and observing your pain. I assumed the education would be along the lines of reinforcing the notion that the fibromyalgia body is damaged and that limitations need to be set in order not to set off pain signals. I expected advice about the over-stimulated fibro body and how to deal with (but not remedy) levels of pain.
I expected a lot of information on pain and little on what can actually be done about it.
Boy am I glad my expectations weren’t met.
I’m grateful that the founder and creator of the Pathways app, Sandip Sekhon, patiently answered my email questions. I learned that he’d suffered for many years from the pain of a Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI). Through his own research and discoveries, he learned how to reduce and eliminate his own pain. He then knew he had to shorten the learning curve for others. He wanted to share what he’d learned in an easy-to-consume way.
He’s done just that.
I dove into the content yet I took my time. Over a period of several months, I worked my way through more info sessions taking notes and doing more research on my own (that’s just me). I really enjoyed what I was hearing as it aligns with my own experience.
Once I’d consumed the app’s free content – and shared with Sandip that I was duly impressed – he kindly offered to provide me with the app’s paid benefits beyond the free stuff. Yippee!
I’m still using the app and going through the material. Here’s where you get to benefit from my feedback.
Pathways Pain Relief app for #fibro - Product Review Click To TweetApps that Don’t Work to Reduce Pain
Have you ever used pain tracking apps? There’s a lot of them out there. You can find apps with graphs, charts, reminders and all sorts of simple and easy methods to track your pain and other fibromyalgia symptoms.
You can become a one-person expert on your pain and how you feel at any given moment in time. You can review your pain experiences of the past and notice when it occurred.
Apps such as these ask you to regularly consider your pain levels, to rate your pain levels, and to track your pain levels. Do you see the problem with this? What’s the focus?
Yes, your pain.
Putting the focus on your pain
directs your brain to look for pain
and feel more of it.
Who wants more of that?
This is my frustration with many pain management centers, too. I’ve worked with clients who share that after going through their programs, they feel an increase in their levels of pain – not a decrease. Certainly, this isn’t the goal. But if the program centers tell their patients to only focus their attention on their pain, then increased pain is what they’ll experience.
The news isn’t all bad. Here’s one way that you can benefit from simple tracking.
If you track your pain for a short period of time (depending on your schedule), you’ll gather some very important data. Reviewing past pain experiences can reveal important patterns. You could then notice when and how these patterns show up. From this data you can assess how pain has spiked or increased in the past and learn how to avoid or minimize these circumstances in the future.
Why the Pathways App is Different
The experts and educators at Pathways don’t want you to solely focus on your pain. Really. They want you to learn more about pain in general as well as your pain experiences. They want you to discover methods and practices that work for YOU.
This journey begins with understanding how pain travels through the body. These vital lessons provide you with the path to reduce or even stop your pain.
As well as multiple ways to track how you feel, the Pathways app offers an amazing series of short, powerful, and practical messages explaining the science behind pain and the pathways it follows through the body. The app user is taken on an interactive journey through his or her own pain experiences and is taught to look at pain in many different ways.
What to expect with the Pathways App
The Pathways app allows the user to direct their own experience as they move through the information. Besides the tracking, there are two main focuses:
Pain Program: Short, informational recordings sharing vital information, science studies, inspirational stories, and more
MeTime: Powerful recordings and meditations on topics such as relaxation, inspiration, sounds, sleep, and wellbeing
Once users have a better understanding of the science behind their feelings of pain, research shows that they can begin to let go and feel more relaxed (leading to pain reduction).
Our own perceptions of pain make all the difference.
Next, the pain program offers exercises and examples demonstrating methods to train your body and brain. These practices allow the user to feel less pain, become motivated to avoid what causes pain, and encouraged to take action on healthy improvements.
Does less pain, motivation, and encouragement sound good to you?
If so, you’ll love the MeTime part of the app. There you’ll find over 100 different sessions that provide you with applicable topics and methods needed to relax, sleep, de-stress and more – all at your fingertips.
Oh, and you can also tag either MeTime sessions or program sessions as favorites. That way, you can find them easily on the favorites tab of the app and enjoy them again and again.
If you know me at all, I always like to share positive, encouraging, and inspirational info. If I reviewed this app and didn’t find value in it, I’d simply refrain from writing a blog about it. You can be assured that if you read about a product or service on Rebuilding Wellness, I’ve actually used it, like it, and recommend it.
So, is there anything in the Pathways app I wish were different? The answer yes, but only in a very small way. The nutrition session gave me a little hesitation.
Dietary requirements are different for each of us, so I didn’t expect to find nutritional information specifically for me. I was ready to be broad-minded about the info given. Yet, I feel there are two glitches in this session.
It mentions the basics for a healthy diet and surprised me when it didn’t happen to mention vegetables in this primary short list. It does mention leafy greens (which are very important and a powerful part of the veggie family), but I would have preferred to hear them both listed as a basic requirement of a healthy diet. And, yes, veggies were mentioned later in the session, so my comment is really just a personal preference on the priorities of how to list them.
As you can see, this is a minor concern. Nothing gnarly.
The other issue I had with the nutrition session is also small but I admit it did make me cringe. It recommends healthy fats (yay!) and includes canola oil as one of them (boo!). Healthy fats are SUPER important and while I’d prefer they suggest a wider variety of healthy ones, I’d NEVER include canola oil on any “what to consume” list. As a highly processed and genetically modified oil,[1] this is an oil to skip. Again, this is a sticking point for me. It’s my preference. Perhaps there’ll be forthcoming editorial changes?
You’ve now heard from me, so, what’s next?
How to Get Started with the Pathways app
Why not start now?
The Pathways app is free. Simply download to your apple or android device and begin your journey to wellness today. I truly love and use this app myself and enjoy it often.
I’d love to see you become part of the Pathways community, too.
Why not help them with their mission?
Pathways Pain Relief app:
Our mission is to reduce pain and suffering in the world.
First goal: a million people pain-free.
Click the following link to download this FREE app to your favorite device.
