Mindfulness and Chronic Pain

[@jenenahansson5892]

You are such a special, gifted man. I respect and am so thankful my therapist told me about you. God bless you & your family!❤

[@moffia100]

This man literally saved my life from chronic pain. He is a true hero.

[@butterflybeatles]

How?

[@ME-bq6lu]

This guy gets it, well done.

[@pattiradman5391]

So very well said in how to use mindfulness to address pain!

[@lizr9894]

It has helped me greatly to practice becoming aware of my emotional reaction to physical pain so that it does not contribute. However, I have yet to discover how to relabel or think of my (physical) pain as anything other than pain. For me, the word discomfort has always meant an unpleasant sensation that hurts less than pain, so to use that word doesn't help me. It's like I'm trying to convince myself that my pain is really only discomfort. It seems like an attempt at minimizing it instead of accepting it. That said, the suggestion in Mindfullnes Meditation for Pain Relief of 'putting out the welcome mat' for what I am experiencing has helped me immensely with not only acceptance, but also reframing my thoughts about my 'pain'.

[@abiboocock846]

Liz R how would you do this specifically? I am a beginner here with using mindfulness to manage chronic pain and have only had a couple times where I tried to be open. I found it difficult and did not notice any lasting results. Is there an element of acceptance? Perhaps I am just not there yet.

[@ShatteredRippleBooks]

Obviously not someone who experiences debilitating daily pain. When I'm in pain the only thing I can concentrate on is the pain. Any attempts to distract myself are futile. I meditate when I get a lull in the pain but that's the only time I can manage it. During most of the day I'm up pacing the floor in agony.

[@Ericaaaaaaaaaa]

Meditation is not about distraction or ignoring pain. Meditation helps you get better at experiencing all kinds of sensations and feelings without judgement and without trying to get away from them. If a panic attack shows up, you pay mindful attention to panic. If pain shows up, you pay mindful attention to pain. Anything we experience can be an object for meditation, and meditating with difficult feelings and sensations has been very helpful to me.

[@4TIMESAYEAR]

Would like to see them do this with a 4 day migraine, complete with throwing up or dry heaves every 15 minutes, unable to MOVE for fear of making a #15 pain a #20 (Not kidding) People who think this works on that kind of pain need to experience it just once and they'd think differently.

[@ShatteredRippleBooks]

@4TIMESAYEAR I get migraines too and I totally agree with you

[@MindfulnessMeditator]

@@4TIMESAYEAR I used to get cluster headaches. They're considered the worst pain objectively. I would get nausea from how terrible they were. But when I faced them, and accepted the pain and let go of the fear and anticipation of them, I noticed a dramatic reduction in how I was exacerbating them. I still sought out conventional drugs to treat them, but I have zero doubt that mindfulness was key in reducing the ancillary suffering I experienced around this condition. It really gave me my life back. There's also a kind of zen state you can achieve with *letting go* in the midst of terrible attacks, and you feel a flood of endorphins in this state. I've heard people describe this kind of runner's high when burning, or with terrible bone breaks, etc. It's not an accident how this happens. It's radical acceptance of these states.

[@dalladi]

When I had an ear infection even though I had years of meditation under my belt I still found meditation and mindfulness about as effective and attempting to drain water from the ocean with a bucket. Our medical system needs updating and this doctor is too well paid to care about that I'm sure.

[@ourvoices2012]

Even more critical as we are aging to deal with chronic pain to experience it as you expeessed🙅🙏

[@miepmiep2274]

I am in the middle of a little fallback in my chronicpain. I hope these words help me recover faster. Cause its scary

[@flinryder7119]

Replace the word pain with discomfort... sure when it so intense you feel like you’re muscles are going to tear .. clearly never experienced PAIN

[@pemj7360]

Mindfulness has its place in life especially mental health. But tell my body to in the middle of the night when it goes into a spasm. . Here in the uk they use this or steps to well being. Obviously people telling you have happy thoughts. Lmfao 😆 🤣 as I said to one guy let me scrape your shin bone with a needle. And tell me it's not painful.

[@dmgsoultogetherness6667]

fibromyalgia with depression

[@KBMarx972]

U

[@4TIMESAYEAR]

Might work on minor pain, but when you're dealing with the kind of pain that won't let you relax, this is worthless. You're pushing a religion; this isn't science.

[@poikkiki]

Look into Mindfulness for health by Vydiamala Burch. She has excruciating pain, takes painkillers and practices mindfulness. Jon makes it very clear in this video, mindfulness is a complement to medical treatment, not a substitute. You can do whatever your doctor tells you to do and reduce your pain aswell by aplying mindfulness. And it is not religion, there are hundreds of scientific articles that demonstrate how effective mindfulness is. Just look for mindfulness and chronic pain on Pubmed.

[@louiserussell8909]

At pain management class we are taught to not focus on the pain. That it can cause permanent changes in the brain pathways. So this is my issue with mindfulness and these approaches.

[@allanedwards4350]

​@@louiserussell8909 Hi Louise. I am also someone who lives with a chronic pain condition. And my initial reaction to mindfulness being suggested as a helpful technique was exactly the same as your own. "Isn't this exactly what we should NOT be doing?" But I've come to believe it is more about the focus of that mindfulness. Now I’m not assuming any authority on this matter. I’m writing this as much for my own benefit. Seeing my own thoughts take shape in the form of text. So please forgive my indulgence. Also, hopefully this will serve some purpose to you and any others reading it. I know only too well how our pain can dominate our lives and thoughts. Either with our worries of how a task we are contemplating will aggravate our pain. Or by reflecting on our current pain, and how we have just made it worse by attempting what we feel we should be easily able to do. And our instinct is surely to try to ignore it, or turn away and create a distraction for ourselves in some way, and these methods can work in varying degrees dependant on the circumstances. But they can have too many variables for my certainty. As for many of us in this same situation, bed time is most fraught with anxieties of one type or another, the worst being- "Now I'm in bed with the one purpose of trying to get to sleep, and I just know my pain is not going to let me.” Adding to my anxiety with the knowledge that I'm going to be useless tomorrow, and possibly for days to come." And if we do manage to switch off from all thoughts of the day just past and considerations of the one to come, what are we left with, but our pain..... This is when I find the ‘focus’ of mindfulness to be useful. I don't know about you, but my pain has so many different varieties, ranging from itching sensations to deep persistent aches, to sudden jabbing pains like I've just been stuck by a needle. Etc. etc. and comes in a variety of surprising combinations. I have decided that since they are all here to stay I'd better get used to them. A bit like having a houseful of noisy house guests. But instead of being the reluctant host, who is trying to sleep and getting angry at their thoughtlessly playing loud music til 3am, and wondering when the hell they are going to shut up and go home, I've decided to recognise their presence and understand that I'm not going to be able to stop that music by force of will. But by acknowledging it, I can choose to ignore it. I'm slowly naming my guests and attributing characteristics to them so i can recognise them by other methods than just the ghastly music they seem to favour. EG ‘the pain’ This is just my method. I'm finding it requires practice and therefore a faith in your ability to make some constructive headway. Sometimes I find it very difficult, but slowly I think I’m realising that instead of taking one step forward and two steps back, that trend is slowly reversing to become two forward, and the one step backwards is acceptable. I notice that your post was a year ago so hopefully you have found your own way and might have something to share of your experiences too.

[@Ericaaaaaaaaaa]

This guy works with patients at the University of Massachusetts Hospital who are very sick and in massive amounts of pain. It's legit. It is science.

[@4TIMESAYEAR]

@@poikkiki As long as it's not a substitute for pain killers. Anything that helps is a supplement to pain killers - it can never replace them. I've tried biofeedback. I can lower my pulse, lower my BP, but it doesn't do a blessed thing to reduce my pain. I'm thinking "mindfulness" runs along the same lines.