'We are not our illness' and this sentence is a good one to remember:
"It becomes easier to see the pain as part of your life, and not the story of your life."
It is better to focus on what we still can do than to moan about what we have lost. Again cultivating a positive attitude helps us seek creative solutions to dealing with symptoms that won't go away, such as chronic pain.
............................................................
Like it or not, pain helps us stay alive and healthy.
Chronic pain lasts for months or years, straining your physical and emotional well being. It can be debilitating, and our natural reaction is to resist it as you would an enemy.
The enemy is an uninvited, useful guest who overstays its unwelcome; practicing mindfulness is a proven way to make this guest less of a nuisance.
Mindfulness meditation is helpful for managing chronic pain in two ways.
First, it helps people better tolerate their pain.
Second, it can reduce the intensity of the pain sensation.
The reason for this is not mystical, but practical. Through mindfulness, people create a different relationship to pain because their perception of it changes.
Mindfulness meditation is a western, non-sectarian technique... adapted from Buddhist techniques. It is accessible to everyone since mindfulness can be cultivated.
Mindfulness is a non-thinking awareness of what’s happening in the present moment, meaning thoughts, smells, sensations, sights, sounds, and taste.
Mindfulness is paying attention, on purpose, and without judgement, to whatever arises in the present, within you or without.
This practice is effective in managing chronic pain in a number of ways.
How Mindfulness Eases Chronic Pain
Judgments make the focus of our attention personal whereas curiosity brings detachment.
By being curious about pain, it becomes easier to release resistance to it.
Pain is more tolerable without resistance; the hurt is no longer a boulder to push uphill, but a stream of continuous change.
B. By observing our thoughts during mindfulness meditation we discover thoughts are not facts.
They appear and then disappear unless we hang onto them.
Even a thought such as, “This pain is unbearable, I can’t take it anymore,” is something that can be let go of.
By letting painful thoughts go, your feelings, including pain, have nothing to hang on to.
People find this reduces discomfort.
C. Pain is a word representing many different types of sensations.
When attentive to chronic pain, it can be described specifically as tight, tingly, pulsing, sharp, or whatever.
It is easier to manage a pulsing sensation, or a steady throb than a shapeless generic blob of pain.
D. By practicing mindfulness you notice that chronic discomfort is not “who you are.”
It becomes easier to see the pain as part of your life, and not the story of your life.
Some people describe it as seeing the discomfort through the “wrong” end of a telescope; it is smaller and farther away.
.......................................................................
Jon Kabat-Zinn is the Harvard professor who has popularized using mindfulness meditation to deal with chronic pain (MBSR).
Find more information and suggestions for managing chronic pain at Healthline.com.
Original article:
Chronic pain relief with mindfulness | Washington Times Communities
LINK: http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/healthy-tips-and-scripts/2012/aug/9/chronic-pain-relief-mindfulness/
.......................................................................................
Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn developed the Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center. Since its inception, MBSR has evolved into
a common form of complementary medicine addressing a variety of health problems.
The National Institutes of Health's National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine has provided a number of grants to research the efficacy of the MBSR program in promoting healing (see "Studies" below for information on this research).
Completed studies have found that pain-related drug utilization was decreased, and activity levels and feelings of self esteem increased, for a majority of participants.
More information on these studies can be found on the University of Massachusetts Medical School website: Center for Mindfulness
Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction brings together mindfulness meditation and yoga.
Although MBSR is a training with potential benefits for all types of participants, historically, students have suffered from a wide range of chronic disorders and diseases.
MBSR is an 8-week intensive training in mindfulness meditation, based on ancient healing practices, which meets on a weekly basis.
Mindfulness practice is ideal for cultivating greater awareness of the unity of mind and body, as well as of the ways the unconscious thoughts, feelings, and behaviors can undermine emotional, physical, and spiritual health.
The mind is known to be a factor in stress and stress-related disorders, and meditation has been shown to positively effect a range of autonomic physiological processes, such as lowering blood pressure and reducing overall arousal and emotional reactivity.
In addition to mindfulness practices, MBSR uses yoga to help reverse the prevalence of disuse atrophy from our culture's largely sedentary lifestyle, especially for those with pain and chronic illnesses. The program brings meditation and yoga together so that the virtues of both can be experienced simultaneously .
The MBSR program started in the Stress Reduction Clinic at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center in 1979 and is now offered in over 200 medical centers, hospitals, and clinics around the world, including some of the leading integrative medical centers such as the Scripps Center for Integrative Medicine, the Duke Center for Integrative Medicine, and the Jefferson-Myrna Brind Center for Integrative Medicine.
Many of the MBSR classes are taught by physicians, nurses, social workers, and psychologists, as well as other health professionals who are seeking to reclaim and deepen some of the sacred reciprocity inherent in the doctor-caregiver/patient-client relationship.
Their work is based on a need for an active partnership in a participatory medicine, one in which patient/clients take on significant responsibility for doing a certain kind of interior work in order to tap into their own deepest inner resources for learning, growing, healing, and transformation.
Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) is a form of MBSR that includes information about depression as well as cognitive therapy-based exercises linking thinking and its resulting impact on feeling.
MBCT demonstrates how participants can best work with these thoughts and feelings when depression threatens to overwhelm them and how to recognize depressive moods that can bring on negative thought patterns .
Mindfulness is a lifetime engagement--not to get somewhere else, but to be where and as we actually are in this very moment, whether the experience is pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral.
A history of the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Program Studies
Staying Well: A Clinical Trial of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction and Education Groups for HIV
A Mindfulness Based Approach to HIV Treatment Side Effects
Massage, Meditation, and Tai Chi for Chronic Lower Back Pain
Meditation-Based Stress Reduction in Rheumatoid Arthritis
Mindfulness-Based Art Therapy for Cancer Patients
Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction for Hot Flashes
"What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?"
- Mary Oliver in The Summer Day
Source: http://www.mindfullivingprograms.com/whatMBSR.php
"It becomes easier to see the pain as part of your life, and not the story of your life."
It is better to focus on what we still can do than to moan about what we have lost. Again cultivating a positive attitude helps us seek creative solutions to dealing with symptoms that won't go away, such as chronic pain.
............................................................
Like it or not, pain helps us stay alive and healthy.
Chronic pain lasts for months or years, straining your physical and emotional well being. It can be debilitating, and our natural reaction is to resist it as you would an enemy.
The enemy is an uninvited, useful guest who overstays its unwelcome; practicing mindfulness is a proven way to make this guest less of a nuisance.
Mindfulness meditation is helpful for managing chronic pain in two ways.
First, it helps people better tolerate their pain.
Second, it can reduce the intensity of the pain sensation.
The reason for this is not mystical, but practical. Through mindfulness, people create a different relationship to pain because their perception of it changes.
Mindfulness meditation is a western, non-sectarian technique... adapted from Buddhist techniques. It is accessible to everyone since mindfulness can be cultivated.
Mindfulness is a non-thinking awareness of what’s happening in the present moment, meaning thoughts, smells, sensations, sights, sounds, and taste.
Mindfulness is paying attention, on purpose, and without judgement, to whatever arises in the present, within you or without.
This practice is effective in managing chronic pain in a number of ways.
How Mindfulness Eases Chronic Pain
Judgments make the focus of our attention personal whereas curiosity brings detachment.
By being curious about pain, it becomes easier to release resistance to it.
Pain is more tolerable without resistance; the hurt is no longer a boulder to push uphill, but a stream of continuous change.
B. By observing our thoughts during mindfulness meditation we discover thoughts are not facts.
They appear and then disappear unless we hang onto them.
Even a thought such as, “This pain is unbearable, I can’t take it anymore,” is something that can be let go of.
By letting painful thoughts go, your feelings, including pain, have nothing to hang on to.
People find this reduces discomfort.
C. Pain is a word representing many different types of sensations.
When attentive to chronic pain, it can be described specifically as tight, tingly, pulsing, sharp, or whatever.
It is easier to manage a pulsing sensation, or a steady throb than a shapeless generic blob of pain.
D. By practicing mindfulness you notice that chronic discomfort is not “who you are.”
It becomes easier to see the pain as part of your life, and not the story of your life.
Some people describe it as seeing the discomfort through the “wrong” end of a telescope; it is smaller and farther away.
.......................................................................
Jon Kabat-Zinn is the Harvard professor who has popularized using mindfulness meditation to deal with chronic pain (MBSR).
Find more information and suggestions for managing chronic pain at Healthline.com.
Original article:
Chronic pain relief with mindfulness | Washington Times Communities
LINK: http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/healthy-tips-and-scripts/2012/aug/9/chronic-pain-relief-mindfulness/
.......................................................................................
What is Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction?
Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn developed the Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center. Since its inception, MBSR has evolved into
a common form of complementary medicine addressing a variety of health problems.
The National Institutes of Health's National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine has provided a number of grants to research the efficacy of the MBSR program in promoting healing (see "Studies" below for information on this research).
Completed studies have found that pain-related drug utilization was decreased, and activity levels and feelings of self esteem increased, for a majority of participants.
More information on these studies can be found on the University of Massachusetts Medical School website: Center for Mindfulness
Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction brings together mindfulness meditation and yoga.
Although MBSR is a training with potential benefits for all types of participants, historically, students have suffered from a wide range of chronic disorders and diseases.
MBSR is an 8-week intensive training in mindfulness meditation, based on ancient healing practices, which meets on a weekly basis.
Mindfulness practice is ideal for cultivating greater awareness of the unity of mind and body, as well as of the ways the unconscious thoughts, feelings, and behaviors can undermine emotional, physical, and spiritual health.
The mind is known to be a factor in stress and stress-related disorders, and meditation has been shown to positively effect a range of autonomic physiological processes, such as lowering blood pressure and reducing overall arousal and emotional reactivity.
In addition to mindfulness practices, MBSR uses yoga to help reverse the prevalence of disuse atrophy from our culture's largely sedentary lifestyle, especially for those with pain and chronic illnesses. The program brings meditation and yoga together so that the virtues of both can be experienced simultaneously .
The MBSR program started in the Stress Reduction Clinic at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center in 1979 and is now offered in over 200 medical centers, hospitals, and clinics around the world, including some of the leading integrative medical centers such as the Scripps Center for Integrative Medicine, the Duke Center for Integrative Medicine, and the Jefferson-Myrna Brind Center for Integrative Medicine.
Many of the MBSR classes are taught by physicians, nurses, social workers, and psychologists, as well as other health professionals who are seeking to reclaim and deepen some of the sacred reciprocity inherent in the doctor-caregiver/patient-client relationship.
Their work is based on a need for an active partnership in a participatory medicine, one in which patient/clients take on significant responsibility for doing a certain kind of interior work in order to tap into their own deepest inner resources for learning, growing, healing, and transformation.
Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) is a form of MBSR that includes information about depression as well as cognitive therapy-based exercises linking thinking and its resulting impact on feeling.
MBCT demonstrates how participants can best work with these thoughts and feelings when depression threatens to overwhelm them and how to recognize depressive moods that can bring on negative thought patterns .
Mindfulness is a lifetime engagement--not to get somewhere else, but to be where and as we actually are in this very moment, whether the experience is pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral.
Other Resource Links:
Center for MindfulnessA history of the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Program Studies
Staying Well: A Clinical Trial of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction and Education Groups for HIV
A Mindfulness Based Approach to HIV Treatment Side Effects
Massage, Meditation, and Tai Chi for Chronic Lower Back Pain
Meditation-Based Stress Reduction in Rheumatoid Arthritis
Mindfulness-Based Art Therapy for Cancer Patients
Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction for Hot Flashes
"What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?"
- Mary Oliver in The Summer Day
Source: http://www.mindfullivingprograms.com/whatMBSR.php
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