INTRODUCTION BY BECOMING LIKE WATER
Hi, I’m Dr. Emmett Smith. I’ve lived with chronic pain myself for about 35 years now, in fact I lived with chronic pain since I was 13, but 35 years ago it reached disability level.
When I was in my mid-teens, I had a pulmonary embolism, a complete shutdown of my immune system, and needed surgery that was badly done and had to be redone later.
They all came together to give me a lovely lifelong pain disorder, having multiple head traumas in an early age didn’t help, many of us know that head trauma is a comorbidity as they call it.
One of the causes to chronic pain for many people, I was fortunate enough over my life to have great teachers, and as a result, I was able to earn two dogtrots in oriental medicine, and I went to specialise in the field of pain management, I, myself was in a lot of pain during this time.
It spurred me on to study as many approaches to managing pain as I could collect, I also got to see how each of them worked in a clinical environment.
I studied martial arts with their breathing and relaxation approaches to handling pain, I learned acupuncture, Chinese rabdology, acupressure, chi-hat-so the similar art called cohhoigaco.
It’s a form of advance acupressure, and I learned several systems of joint manipulation, I learned arts from Japan, China, ohamia, and the US.
All which info sized the releasing the soft and connective tissue extensively, and then doing very gentle very soft manipulations of the bony structures.
It’s very different from modern kind of practice which uses a higher velocity low amplitude adjustment technique, that many people in chronic pain find actually flares them up.
These softer techniques did not do that and so I specialized in those, I was working with my hands in medicine both diagnostically and therapeutically, now a days, palpatory diagnoses isn’t common, but in my case it was necessary.
I used every tool in my quiver, adding new approaches to them as the years passed, but the once that involves the patience internal energy which is pronounced chi (Qi) drew me the most.
Developing a sensitivity to chi and developing my own internal energy were important parts of my training especially because I went blind during this time, and I was practicing as a blind Dr.
Chi training is an integral part of all the oriental healing techniques, and the oriental cultures have been honing these for the past 7000 years or so, they learn things that the west didn’t find out about until millennia later.
I found myself brewing my practice wherever my life took me because of how well they worked, during this time, as I said I was going blind and living as a blind individual, it was from the genetic condition, and it was progressive.
Eventually I had the privilege of partnering with two wonderful guide dogs, I got to hand raise and hand train them, along with one of my patience over at an assistance dog training foundation.
It was marvellous, because of my chi training we were able to sense rather than see each other, and to communicate on an energetic level and it made our partnership, even more beautiful and more affective.
I really loved it, as I was in a motor vehicle accident in 1990, my pain levels were severely increased, it left me disabled for four years.
Ten years later, I recovered my sight through 3 experimental surgeries, and that released a lot of the tension and pain in my neck, my migraines and the tension in my shoulders and it reduced my headaches tremendously it also reduced my back and neck pain.
It was miraculous, and it allowed me to return to my physical training with renewed zeal, but 16 months later in 2020
I was a passenger in yet another motor vehicle accident, and it left me in and out of a wheelchair for three more years, and then still in and out of it for another 8 eventually in order to heal up from the accident.
I had to develop the system that we now call Becoming Like Water in order to control my own pain, we used all the things that I was taught to my sever and impractical pain patience.
Over the years that informed them through a step-by-step approach to a long term self-care and pain management, that system has given me back my life.
10 years after leaving the wheelchair, I was able to get onto an electrical bicycle, the throttle really makes the difference, so I don’t have to pedal when I don’t want to.
I’ve been able to start riding again, start teaching again, and start doing more and more things in my life that were impossible for many years, and this is a gift I want to share with you, now.
5 years ago, I decided to bring these techniques to life for other people I spend a lot of time writing these many articles, you can find them on the website, and the commentaries you will find as well, and I was always looking for the best way to present the information to the pain community.
A year ago I met and decided to partner up with Darren and Tanya Burns who founded mynameisfibromyalgia.com, we quickly came to realize that our knowledge bases and skill sets complemented each other very well, and that we have the same vision of how to bring this knowledge to many people in the pain community.
As many people as possible, there’s no cure for several internal tract chronic pain at this time, and you know that but there are a lot of ways you can choose from to apply to your own situation, to learn about.
Learn the techniques behind and employ in your own life. and these are techniques that will help millions of people with chronic pain across the globe, we have saved and systemized these techniques for you.
To give you the most effective experience, every person is different, we want you to work at your own pace we do offer a standard set of steps, and we do suggest that you go slowly but persistently.
Being careful not doing too much and keeping a careful journal of your goals, your experiences, and your progress, it is important to keep good records when your changing a few parts of your life.
This is something I learned in medicine and something I learned in controlling my pain models, journaling is huge it’s important to change your life in a very slow and methodical way.
With an eye towards how you will feel in the long run, if you’re like most people you will also feel results from some of these techniques straight away but that’s the effect of changing my life to a selfcare approach over the years.
It really gave me back the things that I now can enjoy and I want to share with you, we start everybody off by teaching them how to relax very deeply it changes the size of certain structures in the brain that shrink when you’re in chronic pain for too long.
Parts of the limbic system, the grey matter of the brain, the prefrontal cortex and so forth, with a little practice it’s easy to breath this way you will find that within three months you will change yourself to breathing with your diaphragm all the time.
It’s enjoyable, and it really makes a difference in how you manage pain, because tension = inflammation and inflammation = pain, if we can change that paradigm, we can bring you more relief.
I love to do research and I love to share the parts of my findings that can help our community the most, we ask everyone to keep their journal, there many steps, their many articles and videos and more videos will be coming all the time, and these will help you to understand more about you and I are going through.
The things I offer are the things that have been proven in both the lives of my patience and with myself, I am glad to be welcoming you here to Becoming Like Water, we are here to help you to hurt less and that is our goal in life.
If one thing draws you but it’s not a step in the basic order that we provide, you should carefully think it over and do whatever your heart tells you.
You know far more about your body and your case and your needs than I do, and we here at becominglikewater.com are here to make your experiences, personal, individual, helpful, and simple as possible, and by becoming more and more knowledgeable and effective regarding your pain management.
Here is to lower pain days and nights my friend take care, and I hope you will enjoy the program.