The Mindfulness Blog

I was asked recently to contribute to a radio show broadcast on BBC about whether or not pain is in the mind. There are so, so many people suffering in pain everyday! People were phoning in constantly looking for answers to dealing with their pain. It really is sad that so many people are so desperate to find an answer to help improve their quality of life. And I thought I had it bad! Not likely!

Anyway back to the topic at hand, it is my opinion that pain is not a product of the mind however, I am living proof that we can limit our suffering by training our mind to react in certain ways when we feel pain. This is far from easy and takes a great deal of practice to master. I have been consistently ‘catching’ myself whenever I start to let my pain overcome me but I still have days when my mind is tired and the pain takes over and I suffer physically to the point of spending all day just trying to get around. I would like to share with you a ‘good’ day though when my mind is strong enough to deal with the pain.

Usually when I first wake up is a bad time for me. My back is stiff and sore and it takes quite a while for me to be able to put my weight on my feet due to painful heels. This is make or break time for me! Either I will sit there on the bed and whine and complain about the pain (usually only when there is a sympathetic ear around, but these are few and far between these days!) or I will take control over it and put Mindfulness into practice.

Try this any time you feel pain and see if it helps you – sit yourself on the edge of the bed and take deep breaths in and out. Concentrate only on your breathing. Feel the breath coming into your lungs and feel it coming out again. Watch your chest rise and fall with each breath. Try doing this for five minutes without loosing your concentration. You will find that thoughts enter your mind pretty much continually and the key is to acknowledge that they are there and simply move them on, don’t pay any attention to them.

If you find your focus has moved away from your breathing and watching your chest rise and fall, gently take your focus back to these things and continue the exercise. The next part is something that I have added to the exercise and find very helpful although you may not read about it in any Mindfulness books! While still focusing on your breathing, say out loud “I am going to have a good day” or “I have many reasons to make the most of today and that is exactly what I am going to do”.

I find affirmations are a great way to prepare me mentally to deal with my pain and keep me going throughout the day. These are just a couple that I find useful and obviously different affirmations will work for different people. One thing I avoid is saying things like – “I can deal with this pain” or “This pain won’t get the better of me”. I find even the mention of the word pain will shift your focus back to it and it will take over your thoughts again and you’re back to square one.

Once I am happy that I am mentally prepared for the day I go back to focusing on my breathing and watching my chest rise and fall for a minute or two and then slowly bring myself back to the room. I find this exercise so good that even though I am in quite a bit of pain there is no way that I can stay sitting on that bed wallowing in my self-pity, I simply have to get up and do my best to make the day a good one. Admittedly I may have to do this several times a day to stay positive but that doesn’t matter, do it as many times as you need to.

There will always be times when it is easier just to lie back down, make yourself as comfortable as you can and stay there all day. I know I have done this on many occasions when I just can’t get my mind to ‘over-ride’ what I am feeling physically and it is awfully hard to keep going. If you find yourself having one of these days try doing this exercise again in one hour and keep trying until you have enough mental strength to get yourself out of bed. Also, try thinking of something that you like doing that you could do once you are up and about, I find that helps a lot. Heck, I even think of sitting down having a cup of coffee as a positive reason to get out of bed these days! Sad isn’t it!

I have no doubt at all that even chronic pain is not all in the mind, but I do hope that this little exercise may give you enough mental strength to overcome your pain enough to give you a positive outlook on life and I know from experience that staying positive can make life so much easier when you are suffering in pain.

I would love to hear your comments on what you think about this subject and whether or not this exercise helped in any way.

I have been at this keyboard for over an hour now so I think I better go and lie down! Nah, just kidding! I could really do with a stretch and walk around though.

Take Care

Craig

This entry was posted on Monday, February 18th, 2008 at 2:52 am and is filed under Mindfulness. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.