Ways to use your mind to control pain. Drugs are very good at getting rid of the pain. But often have bad, and even serious, side effects when used for a long time. If you have backache, arthritis, or chronic pain that inhibits your daily life. You may be looking for a way to relieve discomfort that doesn’t involve drugs. Some age-old techniques—including meditation and yoga—as well as newer variations, may help reduce your need for pain treatment.
Scientific Research:
Research suggests that because pain involves both the mind and the body. Mind therapies may have the power to relieve pain by changing the way you perceive it. Your genetic makeup, personality, and lifestyle effects how you feel pain. If you’ve been in pain for a while. Your brain may have rewired itself to recognize pain signals even after the signals aren’t being sent anymore.
Techniques to relieve pain:
Ways to use your mind to control pain. The Benson-Henry Institute for Mind-Body Medicine at Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital specializes in helping people learn techniques to relieve stress, anxiety, and pain. Dr. Ellen Slawsby, an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School who works with patients at the Benson-Henry Institute, suggests learning several methods so that you can settle on the ones that work best for you. “I tend to think of these methods as similar to tastes in an ice cream store. Depending on your mood, you might want a different flavor of ice cream—or a different method,” Dr. Slawsby says. “Testing a mixture of mind-body skills increases the effectiveness of pain relief.”
The following techniques can help you take your mind off the pain and may help to override established pain indications.
1. Simple breathing and relaxation:
How to use your mind to control pain? First, you will need to get relaxed. To practice a relaxation exercise, you must first set aside some time when you know you will not be disturbed.
Put yourself in a relaxed, reclining position in a dark room. Either shut your eyes or focus on a single point. Be sure your position is comfortable.
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Slow down your breathing by doing the following:
- Breath in deeply through your nose. Use your chest to pull the air into your stomach, while slowly counting to 10.
- Exhale slowly through your mouth, while pursing your lips, for a count of 10.
After you feel yourself relaxing, begin using imagery techniques.
2. Distract yourself:
Shift your attention to something else so the pain is not the only thing on your mind. Get stuck into an activity that you enjoy or find stimulating. Many hobbies, like photography, sewing, or knitting, are possible even when your mobility is restricted.
3. Put Your Pain in Perspective:
Here exist some ways to help your brain block out the pain.
“No pain, no gain,” or so the saying goes. But not all pain yields positive gain.
1. Let Your Body Do Its Job:
According to new research, the brain releases its painkilling chemicals when we’re faced with social rejection.
In the study, researchers at the University of Michigan’s Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience Institute showed online dating profiles to 18 adults and asked them to select the people they would like to meet.
After placing them in a positron emission tomography (PET) scanner that measures activity in the brain. They told the subjects that none of their prospective dates were mutually interested.
scanner’s result:
ways to use your mind to control pain. The scanner showed that the patient’s brains responded to the rejection by releasing painkilling opioids in areas of the brain known to battle physical pain. According to the findings, published in Molecular Psychiatric Trusted Source. Those with the highest amount of natural painkiller activation also scored the highest on tests of resilience or the ability to adjust to change.
“The knowledge that there are chemicals in our brains working to help us feel better after being rejected is comforting,” David Hsu, Ph.D., lead author of the study, said.
1. Distract Yourself:
A study published last year in the journal Current Biology showed that one way to trick pain away is to find something else to think about.
Researchers at University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf in Germany had subjects concentrate on tasks while painful heat was applied to their arms. Using brain scans, researchers found that concentrating on the task at hand—instead of the pain—helped block pain messages from being sent from the spinal cord to the brain. It also triggered the production of painkilling opioids.
2. Put Your Pain in Perspective:
Ways to use your mind to control pain. Pain can knock you off your game, but not if you train yourself to frame it in a positive light. For example, if you experience pain after an injury, remind yourself that your body is working to repair the damage.
“Don’t get too emotionally involved with the pain or get upset when you feel it,” long-distance runner and performance psychologist Jim Taylor told Runner’s World. “Detach yourself and simply use it as information.”
4. Cough Through Quick Pain:
Ways to use your mind to control pain. German researchers have discovered that coughing right as a needle penetrates your skin can help take the sting out of it.
Researcher Taras Usichenko studied the pain responses of 20 men when they were pricked with a needle and concluded that a simple cough was an easy and free way to take the pain out of routine shots.
5. Yoga and tai chi:
Ways to use your mind to control pain. These mind-body exercises incorporate breath control, meditation, and movements to stretch and strengthen muscles. Videos and apps can help you get started. If you enroll in a yoga or tai chi class at a gym or health club, your health insurance may subsidize the cost
6. Positive thinking:
Ways to use your mind to control pain. When we’re ill, we often tend to become fixated on what we aren’t able to do. Retraining your focus on what you can do instead of what you can’t give you a more accurate view of yourself and the world at large,” says Dr. Slawsby. She advises keeping a journal in which you list all the things you are thankful for each day. “We may have limitations, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t still whole human beings.”
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