You can control pain through the process of mind-body intervention that utilizes mindfulness meditation. Here we will show you how to use meditation to manage your chronic pain and live a happier and healthier life.
MINDFULNESS AND CHRONIC PAIN MANAGEMENT
Many people live with chronic pain day after day with little to no relief. However, when this pain goes beyond the physical aspects, it can interfere with sleeping, eating, mood, personal relationships and professional abilities to name just a few. These effects can leave you looking for alternatives to narcotic pain medications. If this is you, then mindful meditation might be a viable option for managing your chronic pain.
Meditation can be used alone or with other practices that use meditation and movement to achieve stress and pain reduction. Some of these include yoga and tai chi. However, much of the literature related to meditation in the past decade has focused on mindfulness meditation. This technique has been shown to have effects on the process of enhanced self-regulation, that includes self-awareness, emotional regulation and attention control ( Tang, Holzel & Posner, 2015).
HOW WE PERCEIVE PAIN
The human mind does not only feel pain; it processes all of the different sensations to determine the underlying causes so that in the future you can avoid pain or damage to the body. As your mind analyses the pain, it also sifts through memories for occasions when you have had similar experiences. It searches for patterns or clues, that might lead to a solution. The problem is, that if you have endured chronic pain for months or years, the mind will have an abundant supply of painful memories to draw upon but very few solutions ( Sousa, 2016).
Before you realize it, your mind can become flooded with thoughts about your pain in which you feel that you have always been in pain and may never find a solution. These thoughts can result in a vicious cycle that ends up further amplifying your pain. The stress of this can trigger feedback systems in the body causing harm to the immune system and hampering the healing process. Over time, your brain becomes better at sensing pain and reacts faster and with greater magnitude ( Cummins, 2019).
USING MINDFULNESS THROUGHOUT LIFE
As you spend time practicing mindfulness; you will likely feel less pain and stress, you may be calmer, and more patient with other people and different events. This practice can modify the way you experience things and will probably generate changes in other parts of your life as well.
When you practice mindfulness meditation, you have the ability to recognize and decrease pain. In effect, mindfulness teaches you how to turn down the volume control on your pain by training your brain to react differently to pain responses. By doing so, your body can then relax and begin to heal.
In addition to these benefits, numerous scientific trials have shown that mindfulness meditation is an extremely useful tool for relieving anxiety, stress, depression, exhaustion, and irritability. Other studies have found that this form of meditation can help improve memory and clarity, improve reaction times, and increase mental and physical stamina. In short, individuals that meditate regularly tend to be happier and more content than average, while being far less likely to suffer from psychological distress ( Durkin, 2017).
