Mindfulness as a form of pain relief?
This how you can use your mind to release your body from pain.
Where you place your awareness is where you place your energy.
If you are in pain where are you placing your attention? On your pain.
When you focus on the pain you are feeling, the feeling of pain gets amplified. This can be exhausting and suddenly your pain is not only physical, it’s emotional too.
I tried mindfulness before and it made my pain worse, can it work?
Chronic pain can be a challenge because it can consume your thoughts and therefore your mind (and your awareness) but this is also why mindfulness can be is beneficial for chronic pain…
The purpose of mindfulness, (known as mindfulness-based stress reduction or MBSR) is to create awareness of the self. Self-awareness broken down is about noticing. Drawing your attention to your breath and your body to notice the sensations you are feeling. By paying attention to what and where you are feeling sensations in your body you can acknowledge what you are experiencing which allows you to respond to the pain and change the experience you are having.
During mindfulness practice your awareness is not left to linger on your pain but encouraged to your breath; how you are breathing and your whole body; your attention is being drawn elsewhere, away from your pain.
Pain is not relieved, your perception of your pain is altered.
Your breath is your body’s fastest way of influencing your central autonomic nervous system and in mindfulness, we can tap into your rest/digest mode. By drawing your awareness away from your pain to your body as a whole you are better able to relax which helps to release the tension you may be holding onto in your body because of your pain.
This is important; think about when you cut your finger, you clean it up and hold it tight to stop the bleeding then you wrap it up to avoid moving it and making it worse until it heals. We do this with every part of our body that hurts; we hold it tight and protect it (ourselves) from making it feel worse.
If you have chronic pain in your lower back your mobility will indeed be affected and limited. However, it is also true that you will hold tension around your lower back, hips, belly and even your legs (the surrounding and connected areas) to avoid making the pain worse or moving in a way to aggravate your pain. Unintentionally you are adding tension here, not to mention the anxiety you will be experiencing as you move about doing day-to-day things worrying that the pain will be worse!
Protecting or guarding our pain, whether it’s mental or physical, is a natural thing we do.
Another thing our bodies do naturally but we find much harder to do is relax. Mindfulness can not only help to relieve the physical symptoms and sensations of pain but also reduce the anxiety and tension related to your pain.
This is not a magical cure however, by practising mindfulness regularly you can turn down the intensity of the pain you may be experiencing in your life.
I hope this helps.
Big love,
Becki
