Chronic Pain Sufferers Can Find Relief in Mindful Meditation
There are countless people who struggle with chronic pain. Sometimes the pain is caused from a medical condition and sometimes it’s a result of experiencing damage to the body through an accident or abuse.
Most people are familiar with dealing with the stress of the pain that feel in their body. But, chronic pain doesn’t simply affect the body. It can also impact how you feel emotionally.
It’s perfectly normal when you’re dealing with long term pain to experience anger about what you’re going through. It’s also normal to get upset when others have a hard time understand the level of pain you’re experiencing.
If it’s left untreated, chronic pain can wear on a person so deeply that they can begin to feel depressed. Modern medicine tries to offer relief from chronic pain but in many cases, can only medicate the symptom rather than actually treat the condition.
You need something more than that. By using mindfulness, not only can you find relief for your physical symptoms, but you can also find help for the emotional side effects that are common when you have to live with chronic pain.
When you practice the techniques in mindfulness, it can help ease the way that your body feels pain. What mindfulness does is teach people to focus on the sensations of the body along with the emotional feelings when they’re struggling with pain.
This approach is in direct contradiction to the way that some treatments suggest not thinking about the pain. But not thinking about can actually add to the stress, which can cause even more pain.
By learning mindfulness, you can decrease the pain and gain a sense of peace as well. With mindfulness, you find a quiet place and focus on each part of your body and how it feels in regards to the pain.
You don’t judge the pain and you don’t fight it. You don’t view it as something negative either. You just simply become aware of it. While you’re sitting, concentrate on how your body feels in connection with whatever it is that you’re sitting on.
Become aware of the chair and how the floor feels beneath your feet. Picture each area of your body relaxing. Keep your focus centered on your body and don’t view the pain as anything other than a neutral thing within you.
While you’re focused on your body, slowly go over each area of your body. Focus only on that part. Become aware of the senses dealing with that part – such as whether or not it’s cold or warm.
If it feels free or restricted, if it’s against something soft or hard. The goal is to concentrate only on the senses rather than what the pain is doing in that area. After you practice mindfulness on each part of your body, slowly take in the whole body by becoming completely aware.
The mindfulness will help you be able to handle the pain emotionally and relax from the stress, which brings physical relief.
