Do We Need To Suffer? Mindfulness Exercises to Cope with Chronic Pain {The Whole Cure Wellness Wednesday}

Reduce suffering with mindfulness for chronic pain. Free yourself from pain with these strategies and breathing exercises.

Millions of people deal with chronic pain and other distress on a daily basis. Acute pain is an important reaction. It alerts us to harm and drives us to move away from danger. But when the brain is chronically activated to experience pain, it can become difficult to calm down and lead to additional emotional, mental and physical suffering. Mindfulness is one way to change our perception of chronic pain.

Build greater mindfulness into your life to decrease suffering and cope with chronic pain by joining us for the next The Whole Cure Lifestyle Transformation Mindset Module! This very special virtual group coaching program offers lasting transformation and meaningful stress management tools that can shift your entire life! Get exercises, workbooks, audio guided meditations, webinars and more! Learn more about this powerful online program and join us from the comfort of your home anywhere in the world!Commit to yourself now! 

 

What do you think of when you hear the term ‘suffering’?

While we typically equate pain with suffering, there is more to the experience. Suffering is pain combined with worry and mental engagement. Pain is unpleasant, but we don’t necessarily have to react against it or engage in suffering because of it. 

Pain = the physical sensation + the emotions we feel about it + the meaning the pain has for us

So much of our experience, with chronic pain and life in general, depends on our perspective. According to this concept, suffering is optional and results due to the layers of worry and emotions that often come with painful experiences. Emotional and mental tension can add to physical pain and contribute to suffering. 

Mindfulness to Ease Chronic Pain

Mindfulness is one way we can reduce suffering and cope with pain. Studies show that people who deal with systemic pain and practice mindfulness rate their quality of life, happiness, life satisfaction and activity level as improved after mindfulness training even though the objective physical pain has not changed. 

A regular meditation practice, meaningful stress management toolkit or mindfulness approach can build a foundation for working with pain, physical and psychological distress of many kinds.

Mindfulness helps us begin to separate the physical sensation of pain from the emotions we feel about it. The awareness that comes when we recognize, describe and label a sensation can help us separate from becoming entwined with the pain. Ruminating and obsessing about the pain and suffering and what that means to us creates frustration, negative thoughts, judgment and feeling trapped. 

Awareness helps us shift from pushing to avoid or eradicate pain that we view as something that is outside of us, imposed upon us or happening to us and is out of our control to a perspective where we approach distress as something that we can choose how to relate to. It teaches us to release expectations and step out of alarm and reaction mode.

Often, much of the suffering we experience with pain is augmented by the stories we tell ourselves about what it means, what happened in the past and what will happen in the future.  We can get stuck in the past with how the pain came to be or obsess about the future and what the situation will bring. Mindfulness helps bring us back into the present moment.

Mindful Approaches to Cope with Chronic Pain

Mindfulness embraces the approach of healing by empowering and educating rather than pushing to fix someone. I have seen the power of this approach in the clinic. It is so empowering to teach people tools to heal themselves and cope with life in a different way. 

Body Scan

This mindfulness technique involves bringing awareness to each body part. As you start purposely paying attention, you teach your brain that it is okay to be with what is there. It raises your awareness of what is. 

It also allows your body and brain to let go of tension, stress and obsession with suffering. As muscles relax, the nerve impulses traveling to and from them decrease, allowing the brain to calm down. This process shifts the entire nervous system toward relaxation, helping both the body and mind release attachment to suffering.

To experience a simple body scan, follow these steps:

• • Get as comfortable as possible and close your eyes. 

  • Take a few deep breaths and bring your awareness to the sensation of your breath moving in and out of your body. Notice the movements your body makes as the breath flows in and out. 

  • Next, bring your attention to an area of your body that is free of pain. Examine the pleasant, relaxed, or neutral feeling you find there. Allow your attention to stay with this area for a few moments and then relax that area completely. 

  • Next, bring your attention to an area of pain or discomfort. What do you notice there? What is the pain like—sharp, burning, stabbing, clenching? What is your experience in this area from moment to moment? Become a curious observer of your bodily sensations and also notice your attitude and thoughts toward them without judgment. 

  • Breathe into any discomfort and allow yourself to let go of it and relax. 

  • When you are ready, return your attention to your whole body and the sensation of the breath. Feel yourself fully present and aware in this moment.

You can also use this guided relaxation from Breathe: Guided Relaxation & Breathing Exercises to Help You Find Your Whole Cure:

Mindful Breathing

The breath is a beautiful tool that is free, is always with you, requires no equipment and can be used simply to improve your health. Regularly practicing mindful breathing can be both calming and energizing. You can control your breath and use it to reduce stress, change your relationship with pain and achieve a relaxed state.

The breath is a valuable tool for bringing us back into the present moment and grounding us. Simply slowing down the breath and beginning to pay attention to its movement in and out gives the brain a chance to break free from the automatic thoughts and judgments that it jumps to when we get caught up in pain and suffering. 

“I hate this!”

“What am I going to do?”

“This is terrible.”

“I will never be able to do X.”

“Why me?”

You can stop these negative thoughts that come flooding into the brain by calming the mind and grounding into the breath. This gives you the chance to allow your experience to be and stop identifying with and getting trapped in the pain experience. 

This exercise guides you through using deep, slow breathing to cope with pain and anxiety:

If you find this helpful, you can access more guided relaxation exercises utilizing the power of the breath here.

Mindfulness education and practice is a big part of the Simple Pure Whole Solution! Here are a few resources that can support your mindfulness practice during times of uncertainty, anxiety, fear and calm:

Mindfulness Resources for Self-Healing:
      

• Download your free chapters and wellness prescriptions now and get started incorporating a more mindful approach into your life and building resiliency. You can also get your copy of The Whole Cure in paperback or Kindle edition from Amazon.
• My Mindfulness Resources for Crisis and Self-Healing Package provides you with professionally-designed worksheets, handouts and workbooks for creating habits and practicing tools that support optimal stress management, resilience and coping with difficulty.
• Guided meditations and relaxation exercises from my Breathe CD.

Mindfulness Resources for Health Care Practitioners:

 

• If you are a health coach or other health care professional,  I heard from many of you requesting done-for-you content and tools for easy-to-incorporate mindfulness practices that you could use with your clients and patients. To address this need, I want to offer my Done-for-You Package of Mindfulness Resources for Crisis and Calm which provides professional mindfulness resources for coaching and sharing self-healing tools and practices to empower you to teach others how to disconnect from panic, fear and anxiety and build inner peace.
• My newest done-for-you workshop package Rest, Restore & Rejuvenate to Mindfully Manage Stress is the perfect way to offer support for stressful times and everyday optimal health. You can use this completely done-for-you workshop package with your clients or for a virtual teleworkshop or series of sessions. You get everything done for you, from a complete word-for-word script to handouts for your clients to a guided exercise to a complete instruction guide so you are ready to confidently share this guidance with people right away. 

A version of this article by Dr. Weinberg originally appeared on Chopra.com!

 What do you do to de-stress? Have you tried guided relaxation or breathing exercises?

If you enjoyed these healthy tips, I welcome you to join my free Insider’s Community for special offers, members-only opportunities, wellness news, recipes and more! 

 

 

 

You can also get started with these resources for meaningful stress management:

• FREE Stress Management Guide with a preview of The Whole Cure and several wellness exercises to get you started building your toolkit of habits for a more balanced life!
• The Whole Cure Lifestyle Transformation Mindset Module one of my most popular online group coaching programs for lasting transformation and meaningful stress management that can shift your entire life! The next group online program begins soon and can be done from the comfort of your home anywhere in the world! Commit to yourself now!
• My books, The Simple Pure Whole Wellness Solution and The Whole Cure  guide you in exploring foundational habits for a centered, meaningful life where stress does not take over.
• Breathe: Guided Relaxation & Breathing Exercises to Help You Find Your Whole Cure is now available!  This special resource will support you in bringing The Whole Cure to life! The individually-available breathing exercises and guided relaxation experiences (starting at $0.99!) can be used anywhere, at any time of day. Try using them when you feel panic, stress, anxiety or just want a few moments of calm in your day. They are also helpful for coping with pain and helping the body prepare for rest and relaxation.
• 3-Month Simple | Pure | Whole^TM Wellness Solution Essential Lifestyle Coaching Program! Get personalized one-on-one attention and transformational coaching to address your physical and emotional body, lifestyle and habits with customized virtual transformational wellness coaching!