I Am Not Living. I Am Surviving.

There is a difference between a life and a managed existence.

I am not living the way I imagined I would.

I am getting through days.

I am managing symptoms.

I am calculating what I can and cannot do.

I am resting so I can function.

I am functioning so I can rest.

That is the cycle.

And somewhere in that cycle, the things that used to make life feel like a life — the spontaneity, the joy, the sense of possibility — have gotten very quiet.

I do not say this to be dramatic.

I say it because it is true.

And because I think a lot of people who live with chronic pain feel this way and do not say it out loud.

Because it sounds like giving up.

It is not giving up.

It is just an honest description of what survival mode actually feels like from the inside.

Survival mode is a real neurological state. When the body has been under sustained threat for long enough, the nervous system allocates all available resources to getting through — and very little is left for thriving.

This is not a permanent condition. The nervous system can learn to find a lower baseline of activation. And when it does, life begins to expand again.

That is what BioBreathing is working toward with you.

Begin your free 5-minute reset →

Related: Why Chronic Pain Keeps the Body on High Alert · My World Has Gotten Smaller · I Miss Who I Was Before the Pain