An Integrative Approach to Pain: Ease Suffering by Addressing Mind, Body and Spirit + VIDEO {Mind-Body Medicine}

An Integrative Approach to Pain: Relieve Suffering by Addressing Mind, Body and Spirit in These 4 Areas!

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Millions of people deal with chronic pain and other distress on a daily basis.  For example, low back pain is one of the most common reasons for all physician visits in the U.S., with two-thirds of Americans impacted by this often chronic condition.

Like other types of pain, back pain is a complex issue, resulting from many causes and imbalances. It can impact one’s life in significant ways, reducing function and quality of life.

All pain is a mind-body experience. Pain is a combination of the physical sensations we feel, the emotions we feel, and the meaning the pain has for us, and therefore the most effective approaches to deal with pain are generally multifactorial and holistic. Pain can result from an acute injury or illness or be related to another medical condition, such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes and toxic imbalances. Sometimes, we may learn patterns of movement or thinking that contribute to ongoing pain sensations.

Accordingly, the American College of Physicians (ACP) recently updated their guidelines for treating acute or subacute low back pain. The new guidelines strongly encourage clinicians to utilize non-drug therapies such as superficial heat, massage, yoga, acupuncture, spinal manipulation and other mind-body therapies as first-line approaches, turning to narcotics only as a last resort. 

An integrative approach to healing pain looks at the whole person, addressing the mind, body, and spirit. This starts with focusing on the root causes contributing to the pain. 

 

Reduce Inflammation, Relieve Pain

Chronic pain is a symptom of inflammation. The root cause of the inflammation must be addressed for the pain to improve. Mind-body therapies help calm the inflammatory process in the body, promote healing, and present little to no negative side effects. 

Real whole foods can help calm the body’s inflammatory process naturally and safely. Herbs and spices like turmeric and ginger contain anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory compounds. Gingerols are potent inflammation-reducing substances that support cell health and may prevent chronic diseases like arthritis, cardiovascular disease, diabetes mellitus and even cancer. Studies show that curcumin may match some anti-inflammatory drugs in potency making it potentially useful for conditions ranging from arthritis to inflammatory bowel disease to cancer.  On the other hand, it can be helpful to remove foods which create inflammation like those that are refined, processed and manufactured as well as those that contain artificial or chemical additives. 

Try these strategies to reduce inflammation with lifestyle! 

Vegan Cauliflower Apple Walnut Soup with Turmeric 

Perk-Up Ginger Green Smoothie

Ayurvedic medicine recommends including the six tastes in every meal to cultivate balance and healing. Including all six tastes–sweet, sour, salty, bitter, pungent, and astringent– in every meal ensures that you are getting the variety of nutrients that your body needs to heal. It is also important to balance the amount of each taste in the diet, depending on your individual dosha or mind-body type.

Move Mindfully and Become Aware

There are often physical patterns that exacerbate and perpetuate pain. The way you move, sit, work and carry out tasks in your daily life may lead to imbalances and patterns of pain.

Becoming more aware of your body and body mechanics, allows you to cultivate a state of body-centered relaxed awareness. Yoga is one practice that helps strengthen this mind-body connection. As you practice yoga, you start to notice misalignments and movement patterns that contribute to ongoing pain. 

Often, people with pain become sedentary out of fear or to avoid exacerbating the pain, but inactivity generally sets up a vicious cycle which intensifies the issues. Muscles become weaker and joints become tighter, decreasing the range of motion and exacerbating imbalances. In most cases, gentle movement helps increase the flow of energy while the body remains in a relaxed state, which can help restore balance and allow healing. 

The Healing Power of Touch and Energy Balance

Acupuncture and massage are other mind-body modalities that can have powerful healing benefits for both acute and chronic pain.

Acupuncture administered by a trained and knowledgeable professional can help balance the body and allow it to heal. A large study of over 1,100 patients with chronic back pain showed that ten acupuncture treatments resulted in a 47% improvement in pain and functioning after six months.

Gently manipulating the muscles and fascia through massage can change the sensations the brain is receiving and help reduce pain signals. It also increases blood flow to bring oxygen, nutrients and cells to damaged tissues.  Lymph drainage massage can be particularly useful for certain types of pain as it calms the sympathetic nervous system, clears out waste products from the tissues and decreases emotional stress and anxiety.

Healing touch, Reiki, and acupressure are also wonderful ways to calm the nervous system and enliven the body’s innate healing response through the release of natural pain-relieving chemicals called endorphins.

Near-infrared sauna use appears to reduce joint and muscle pain and contribute to tissue healing. Studies have shown improvements in back pain from regular near infrared sauna use, and hand-held infrared devices are commonly used for pain relief. 

Mindfulness Eases Suffering

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

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

• Guided relaxation and body scans (like this one) bring awareness to the body and allow your muscles and brain to let go of tension, stress, and obsession with suffering. 
• Mindful breathing techniques are readily available and reduce stress, change your relationship with pain, and bring the body into a relaxed state where healing can occur more readily. 
• Transform your entire mindset and change your health and life by investing in the Whole Cure Lifestyle Transformation Program: Mind Module! Learning to become aware of your thoughts and emotions and to choose your reactions to stressful situations like pain will transform your health and experience of life. It is one of the most powerful ways to decrease the body’s “fight or flight” response – that state of heightened stress that tends to be overactivated in people suffering from chronic pain. 

Begin with this integrative approach to pain and break free from suffering!

An integrative approach to pain that addresses mind, body and spirit is empowering and educating rather than searching for someone or something to provide a quick fix.

This is not to say that pain is something minor or easy to overcome, but instead to offer hope and tap into the power of the mind to change the experience of pain, even when it is unavoidable. 

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. 

How do you cope with pain?

Share your favorite form of integrative pain relief in the comments below or reach out to discuss how I can help support you!

Ready to invest in yourself? I welcome you to my free Insider’s Wellness Community for special opportunities, inspiration, wellness tools and more! Join us for free today and access a free preview of The Whole Cure and your free stress management guide here and get your copy of The Whole Cure in paperback or Kindle on Amazon (affiliate links) for you or to give as a meaningful gift!

Your Simple Pure Whole Wellness Plan!

• Inflammation plays such an important role in so many chronic issues. I am offering a new, affordable, to-the-point program to help you find balance, heal chronic illness, get to a healthy weight and revitalize! The Simple | Pure | Whole Laser Reset Cleanse will jumpstart the transformation of your lifestyle, diet and body to leave you feeling better than you have in years!
• 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! This group online program and can be done from the comfort of your home anywhere in the world! Commit to yourself now!
• Glorious Greens for Great Health Virtual Workshop and Cookbook: This virtual workshop will introduce you to the facts and science about leafy green vegetables and provide simple and nutritious recipe ideas to help you easily incorporate these nutritional powerhouses into your diet. You will discover vibrant health through knowledge and flavorful real food recipes!
• Learn how you can address toxicity in your life to balance your hormones and weight! Does This Toxicant Make Me Look Fat? will teach you how everyday chemicals can impact hormones, diabetes and obesity and help you cleanse your environment to protect your health!

• 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 (affilaite link) to life! The individually-available breathing exercises and guided rel

NOTE: this post contains affiliate links for products that I use myself and frequently recommend to my clients. These products and the information provided should not be considered medical advice. AFFILIATE DISCLOSURE: Amazon offers a small commission on products sold through their affiliate links. Prices are exactly the same for you if your purchase through an affiliate link or a non-affiliate link. Thank you!

Medical Disclaimer: Information provided in this post and related resources is for informational purposes only. Jennifer Weinberg is not providing medical advice, diagnosis or treatment information. The information is NOT intended as a substitute for the advice provided by your physician or other healthcare professional. Every body is unique so be sure to check with your healthcare professional before making any dietary or lifestyle changes taking any medication or nutritional supplement or using any treatment for a health issue. Do not use this information provided for diagnosing or treating a health problem or disease. If you suspect you have a medical problem please contact your healthcare provider promptly and do not disregard professional medical advice based on anything on this website. This website and related resources are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent disease and do not create a doctor-patient relationship between you and Jennifer Weinberg. These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

This post was shared with:  Healthy, Happy, Green & Natural Party Hop, Healthy Living Link Party, Friday’s Five Features