Being mindful about pain reduces its intensity and severity. It sounds counter-intuitive – why would you want to be mindful about pain? And yet your relationship with your pain – what you think about it, what you tell yourself, what you believe about it – can all increase or decrease the amount of pain you feel. Studies suggest mindfulness can reduce pain by a third.
More than 30 per cent of men and women in the UK experience pain that lasts for more than three months. That’s 20 million people annually, at a cost to the NHS of £15 billion per annum. There isn’t always an obvious reason or cause and the number of people living with long term pain is rising as we live longer.
The number of women with persistent pain rises as high as 50 per cent during peri- and menopause. Several factors may contribute:
- Falling oestrogen seems to increase propensity to joint pain
- Dehydration (made more likely by falling oestrogen) may also contribute
- Weight gain, which increases pressure on joints but also raises general levels of inflammation in the body
- Increased stress and anxiety, common peri- and menopause symptoms, can make the nervous system more sensitive
- Depression is also closely linked to back pain
- Insomnia and fatigue – again common peri- and menopause symptoms – are known to increase pain sensitivity.
How does mindfulness reduce pain
Researchers demonstrated that mindfulness meditation can interrupt communication between the parts of the brain that receive information about tissue damage and those that process what the information means.
Pain signals still travel from your body to your brain, but the suffering associated with how your brain interprets the information reduces. By up to one third in this study.
It gives a scientific explanation to the Buddhist Arrow Sutta. In the Sutta, the first arrow is the one you may not be able to avoid. Some pain is an inevitable part of being human – it’s a protective mechanism, you are supposed to have it. But the second arrow is what you think about your situation, and this can either increase or decrease suffering. It’s optional. And you can use mindfulness to learn how to turn the volume down.
Other studies have shown a link between practising mindfulness meditation and reducing back and neck pain. And how mindfulness can help improve perceived control of pain.
Five ways to get started reducing your pain
You do not have to be an expert meditator to get benefit. The first study quoted earlier showed good results in just four twenty-minute sessions. Focusing on your breath was one of the interventions used in the research. Here are five ways you can put that into practice.
- Nostril breathing: One of the simplest ways to directly calm your nervous system is to breathe in and out through your nose. Start by being aware of your breath just as it is. No need to change it or control it. This awareness of the breath is an antidote to the past or future focus that can increase anxiety.
- Learn to take a Breathing Space: Use this simple guided practice to make a habit of creating breaks in your day. Starting the process of being aware of your breath, then moving this awareness into your body, till you have a sense of your whole body breathing.
- Count your breaths.: Each inhale and exhale, count one, then two, up to five. Then start again. Repeat as often as works for you.
- Focus on your breath in your nose, chest, or abdomen: Vary where you most notice your breathing. It might be the cool air as you breathe in through your nose, and the warm air as you exhale. Or the gentle rise and fall of your shoulders and chest. Or the expansion and contraction of your abdomen.
- Try three, four, five breathing: Breathe in for three, hold for a count of four, breathe out for five. Repeat as often as you want.
Be patient with yourself as you practice. This is not a quick fix. And it is best to practice without expecting any immediate results. Learning mindfulness for its own sake, as a gift to yourself, can be the best way to approach getting a reduction in your pain.
Here is specific mindfulness for pain meditation. It is 11 and a half minutes long.
To find out more about how mindfulness can help you reduce your pain, email me, or book a free, no-obligation consultation.
