More and more people live with persistent pain. Between 30 and 40 per cent of men and women, rising to 50 per cent if you are going through peri/menopause, or over 75 years of age. There are common mistakes about pain, and how to manage it. In this blog I outline three of the most common, and how practicing mindfulness can help you avoid them.
Pain equals tissue damage
It is easy to think that if something hurts, you must have damaged a muscle, joint, or ligament. And if your pain is of recent onset, this may be true. There may be swelling and redness, blisters or bruising. A sense or strain or soreness, in a specific area, that will usually ease in a few days. However, many people develop ongoing pain – more than three months’ duration – without any obvious trauma or damage. Multiple studies of low back pain, or example, indicate that tissue changes seen on MRI are not indicative of whether someone will have pain.
Pain is part of your body’s protection mechanism. If your brain thinks part of your body needs protecting, you will get body pain in the part in question. You cannot prevent this happening, but you can use the mindful attitude of acceptance to ease the distress.
Acceptance invites you to acknowledge the experience – ‘here is pain’ – without resisting, avoiding or tensing against it. Once you acknowledge what is already here, you can reduce the tension and contraction in your body that can make pain worse.
One way to practice Acceptance with pain is to get curious about the sensations. See if you can look at your pain with curiosity. You might try asking some unusual questions – what colour is your pain? Is it deep or shallow in your body? Still or moving. And if you change the colour, the depth, what happens then?
The amount of pain indicates the severity of the problem
If you have ever cut your finger with paper, you’ll know that a deceptively small injury can be very painful. Conversely a study of people with spinal cord damage found no relationship between the degree of injury and the severity of pain.
The amount of pain you experience is influenced by a number of factors including:
- Physical – illness, genetics
- Psychological – beliefs, feelings
- Social – support network, access to care.
The mindful attitude of Non-judgement can help you appreciate your judgements about your pain, and not get trapped in automatic reactions that make things worse.
One way to practice Non-judgement is to practice getting familiar with how you talk to yourself. Take a few moments every day to write down what your mind is saying to you in relation to your pain. Getting more familiar with your self-talk can help you make changes to it that can reduce your pain.
What works for others will work for you
If only this were true. How simple it would be, for patients and doctors and therapists alike.
There are no easy answers to persistent pain. And what creates a sense of safety and reassurance in one person – and so reduces their pain – can have the opposite impact on someone else.
A group of people with fibromyalgia, for example, may all be in the same metaphorical storm. But that does not mean they are all in the same boat.
The mindful attitude of Trust encourages you to explore what works for you. Mindfulness is experiential and your experience is as valid as the next person. It was the Buddha who said that no one should do as he said just because he said it. He encouraged those listening to hear his teachings, but then apply them in their own lives.
This does not mean you do not seek help or ask what has helped others. Only that you filter any supplement/practice/advice through your own experience.
You can practice by remembering a time when you trusted yourself. Reflect on a time when you backed yourself to achieve something. See if you can bring to mind how that felt, in your body and mind. If you have done it before, you can do it again.
It might be clear by now but there’s another mindful attitude that helps in reducing pain – Patience. Rarely are their quick fixes. And bringing kindness and compassion to yourself and your experience can go a long way.
All of the attitude-specific references here also include links to guided meditations for you to try.
Next month, I’ll be writing about two other myths that can keep you in pain and stop you moving forwards. A desire to find the ‘right’ posture or movement. And the search for a diagnosis that may or may not help you.
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