How could mindfulness assist with chronic pain?
With practice, mindfulness teaches you to focus on being mindful of your thoughts.
I started to practice mindfulness when I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia in 2013 following extreme stress at work. It took 3 years for me to get diagnosed by a Rheumatologist and for a long time I was made to feel like I was making my symptoms up, but I knew and those close to me knew that my symptoms were very real, because the pain and fatigue was unbearable. I wouldn’t be able to use my hands, my feet would feel like I was walking over hot coals, my neck and shoulders would seize, and if anyone went near my hip area, they were likely to get a black eye. It was also the feeling of fatigue afterwards that was awful. It would sometimes take me 10 minutes just to climb the stairs, and this is from someone that is usually very fit and can teach several spin classes in one day.
I tried many types of medication, including regular pain killers, which did nothing, codeine, which just blocked me up and made me feel stoned, duloxetine and a high dosage of amitiptyline, which would make me want to sleep all day, but although I knew there was no cure for fibromyalgia, I was determined that I wasn’t going to let this condition beat me, so I started to look at alternative treatments.
This was when I came across mindfulness. I read Mark Williams and Danny Penman’s book, Mindfulness, a practical guide to Finding Peace in a Frantic World, which also came with a CD of Guided Meditations.
Although the book and CD really helped, I found it difficult alone to teach myself mindfulness from this, so I embarked on an 8 week mindfulness course, which really helped me and my fibromyaligia attacked improved significantly, because I was controlling my stress, which seemed to be the major trigger for my attacks and when I was having my attacks I had learnt how to control them with the breathing exercises I had learnt, which I will teach you.
What about controlling pain?
It wasn’t until two years ago – 21 February 2017 that I really needed to use my mindfulness techniques to really help me deal with chronic pain and put this to its true test.
On that day I had a life-changing accident. What was interesting about this, is both Mark Williams and Danny Penman had been involved in very serious accidents themselves, which is why they got involved in mindfulness. Up until now I had only needed it for fibromyalgia, which was bad enough, but now on top of that I had broken almost every bone in my face and fractured my skull and I required major facial reconstructive surgery.
Yes, the pain was intense and in those first couple of weeks it was unbearable, because I had a bad reaction to the pain killers, so I was very sick and no pain relief was staying in my system. However, I then realised then Mark Williams and Danny Penman had a second book called Mindfulness for Health – a practical guide to Relieving Pain, Reducing Stress and Restoring Wellbeing. This book also came with a CD of Guided Meditation.
The first book had helped me to a certain extent and now with lots of time on my hands to recover I had nothing to lose but give this a try and the results were incredible. I was able to control the pain a bit like a volume control by simply focusing on certain parts of my body and meditating. This didn’t happen over night, but I was determined to practice, because by now my fibromyalgia had hot me hard with a vengeance also and I was desperate.
Because this worked for me, I embarked on my own course and became a Master Mindfulness Practitioner myself, so that I can now help others who are suffering from chronic pain, or stress.
Pain always seems worse at night!
Why is this? Is it the silence? Is it because the mind is silent? You want to do anything you can to make the pain go away. You start thinking to yourself: I can’t cope with this anymore… Why me? … I want this to all end? … Should I take more painkillers? … What will I do if it gets worse? … What is it never goes away? …
The benefits of mindfulness for pain
I use a combination of Mark Williams and Danny Penman’s techniques, and Kain Ramsey’s techniques in my training, because they work best as far as I am concerned. Mark and Danny used a series of simple practices that you can incorporate into your daily life to significantly reduce your pain and stress. They are built on Mindfulness-Based Pain Management (MBPM).
The core mindfulness meditation techniques have been shown in many clinical trials to be at least as effective as drugs or counselling for relieving anxiety, stress and depression. When it comes to pain, clinical trials show that mindfulness can be as effective as the main prescription painkillers, and some studies show that it is as powerful as morphine.
Many hospitals now prescribe mindfulness meditation to help patients cope with the suffering arising from a wide range of conditions, such as cancer, heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, back pain, migraine, fibromyalgia, coeliac disease, lupus, ms, ibs and chronic fatigue syndrome.
How does mindfulness and pain work together?
With mindfulness you learn that pain comes in two forms – Primary and Secondary. Each has very different causes. You need to understand the two to control it.
What is Primary Pain?
Primary pain tends to arise from illness, injury or damage to the body or nervous system. You could describe this as raw information being sent by the body to the brain.
What is Secondary Pain?
Secondary pain follows on close behind, but is often far more powerful and distressing. Secondary pain can be seen as the mind’s reaction to Primary pain. Secondary pain is best described as suffering, but you can learn to control it.
In practice, you can be in pain but you need not suffer. This is where mindfulness and meditation comes in. However, there is no need to be sceptical.
What is meditation?
- Meditation is a form of mental training to help people cope with pain, stress, anxiety, illness, depression and exhaustion.
- Meditation boosts mental and physical resilience.
- You will not adopt a fake ‘positive’ attitude to life. It helps you to enjoy life and achieve your goals.
- Meditation does not take a lot of time.
- Meditation is not difficult or complicated, but it does require practice. You can do it anywhere.
A simple breath-based meditation
I have also put this on the below Youtube video so you close your eyes and listen
- If your condition allows it, sit erect but relaxed in a straight-backed chair with your feet flat on the floor. If you cannot sit, then lie on a mat or blanket, on the floor, or on a bed. Allow your arms and hands to be as relaxed as possible.
- Gently close your eyes and focus your awareness on the breath as it flows into and out of your body. Feel the sensations the air makes as it flows in through your mouth or nose, down your throat and into your lungs. Feel the expansion and subsiding of your chest and belly as you breathe. Focus your awareness on where the sensations are strongest. Stay in contact with each in-breath and each out-breath. Observe it without trying to alter it in any way or expecting anything special to happen.
- When your mind wanders, gently bring it back to the breath.
- Your mind may eventually become calm – or it may not. If it becomes calm, then this may only be short-lived. Your mind may become filled with thoughts or powerful emotions such as fear, anger, stress or love. These may also be fleeting. Whatever happens, simply observe as best you can without reacting to your experience or trying to change anything. Gently return your awareness back to the sensations of the breath again and again.
- After a few minutes, or longer if your prefer, gently open your eyes and take in your surroundings.
We are going to look at pain in more detail next Monday on Mindfulness Monday.
