Finding Your Joyful Heart: A Method to Mitigate Chronic Pain
By Dr. Wayne Phimister
Dr. Wayne Phimister discusses how by focusing on your joyful heart, whether it’s expression to someone else, affirmation in your head, or writing in a joyful journal, can help with chronic pain.
Phimister urges educators of chronic pain to remind patients that the heart and the brain are interconnected.
READ: Breathing to Connect Ourselves — On The Topic Of“ Heart-Brain Coherence”
Back in the 1990’s the work at HeartMath clearly showed that when patients were connected with their heart to a subject, the brain was affected.
Phimister suggests having a joyful heart and the associated activities in expressing that joy can help reduce cortisol, raise dopamine, and improve the overall function and chemistry in our bodies to aid in the alignment of healing and pain reduction.
Additionally, a joyful heart may reduce anxiety, help depression, and a variety of other health modalities.
How To Find Your Joyful Heart — Be Joyful In The Small Things In Life
Being joyful in the small things in life, even when struggling with chronic pain, can be beneficial.
The small things in life could be a simple walk to the kitchen, a glass of water, saying “hello” to your neighbor, or kissing a loved one.
Being present, being joyful in your heart, and putting a smile on your face may make the difference to not only yourself, but someone else; a smile on your face might be the only thing someone else sees all day.
A method to express joy is writing. Allow your heart to speak on the paper and write joyful thoughts down.
Writing joyful thoughts may raise your spirits, help your mind, and help realign your neural networking that benefits a healing journey.
READ: Expressive Writing Has The Potential To Heal Mind And Body — Dr. Wayne Phimister
Other methods to express joy and joyful thoughts include writing or speaking positive affirmations and saying “thank you” in your mind repeatedly as an affirmation.
These methods may help boost your mood and move you forward in your healing journey.
Expressing joyful thoughts and having a joyful heart may make a big difference in your life. No matter what your circumstances, Dr. Phimister suggests be grateful, be present in the moment, and allow your heart to lead your brain which leads your body and your chronic pain.
In Conclusion — A Bullet List:
- A simple walk to the kitchen
- A glass of water
- saying “hello” to your neighbor
- Being present
- Practice gratitude for the small things and the things going well and right
- Expressive writing — Let your heart speak on paper
- Be generous with your “Thank Yous”
- Positive Affirmations
Dr. Wayne Phimister grew up and trained to be a General Practitioner in the North-East of Scotland. He has worked in Scotland, New Zealand before immigrating to Canada in 2003.
Dr. Wayne is a clinical assistant professor at University of British Columbia, author and speaker who is dedicated to finding solutions for people suffering in chronic pain.
Dr. Wayne’s journey into healing chronic pain includes resolving his own chronic pain three times and now exclusively focusing on treating chronic pain with the technique of trigger point injections, mindfulness and CBT, anti-inflammatory nutrition advice and the Wim Hof Method to further reduce inflammation in the body.
Dr. Wayne has a podcast show called, “21st Century Pain Solutions”, does weekly Live Streams and is a TEDx speaker.
Dr. Wayne is a single Dad to 3 children who inspire him to be the best person he can be in service to humanity.
You can learn more about Dr Wayne and his work HERE
You can listen to Dr.Wayne’s Interview “Healing Chronic Pain” in the video below

Dr. Wayne Phimister grew up and trained to be a General Practitioner in the North-East of Scotland. He has worked in Scotland, New Zealand before immigrating to Canada in 2003.
Dr. Wayne is a clinical assistant professor at University of British Columbia, author and speaker who is dedicated to finding solutions for people suffering in chronic pain.
Dr. Wayne’s journey into healing chronic pain includes resolving his own chronic pain three times and now exclusively focusing on treating chronic pain with the technique of trigger point injections, mindfulness and CBT, anti-inflammatory nutrition advice and the Wim Hof Method to further reduce inflammation in the body.
Dr. Wayne has a podcast show called, “21st Century Pain Solutions”, does weekly Live Streams and is a TEDx speaker.
Dr. Wayne is a single Dad to 3 children who inspire him to be the best person he can be in service to humanity.
You can learn more about Dr Wayne and his work HERE