Managing the mind

As I have mentioned in other entries, this pain has coincided with a busy period in my life, new-ish job, getting married, buying a house etc. All very positive things, but combined with pain have perhaps not been the ideal combination at times.

One of the things I have found useful has been practicing 'mindfulness'. It is all the rage apparently and my natural cynicism made me wonder what on earth I as doing even contemplating it. Needs must and all that though -  and the benefits I had already got from the yoga convinced me it was worth a go.

I got a book that seemed to get the best reviews, 'Mindfulness for health: a practical guide to relieving pain, reducing stress and restoring wellbeing'. It was not able to quite do all of that, but it certainly has helped. It is an 8 week course whereby you do a series of different guided meditations everyday as you progress through the book. It clearly explains how pain works and how we can manage it more effectively in the way we react to it.

Key to this is accepting that there are different types of pain. Firstly, there is primary pain, which is the reason something hurts (ie. the coccyx dislocating upon sitting for instance). More importantly though there is secondary pain - which is how we effectively turn the volume up on the pain as we focus on trying to cure it and stop it from happening. All this serves to do is increase the pain we feel as we are unable to fix it. All we do is become more aware of it in the process! Another key volume amplifier can be stress from other things going on in life, as this in turn makes us less effective at accepting that this is just the way it is at the moment. Vicious circles are easily put in place despite our best efforts. 

There were times when I was reading bits of the text or doing the meditations and thinking 'yeah yeah, easy for you to say in theory', but the great thing about the book is that the authors have been there and dealt with chronic pain themselves and understand that people will feel cynical like this. They urge you just to do the 8 week course and see how you feel at the end. This is what I did and it has certainly helped me keep things in perspective and realise that the pain is not actually all encompassing. It is just one factor in my life - alongside many other far happier factors! I continue to use the meditations and habit relaeasers from time to time and they have been useful during this post operation period where the pain has been pretty full on! Through improving your ability to be able to focus purely on the moment that you are presently in does bring relaxation and some level of peace to a busy day. Anyway, that is enough from me on this as conscious that I sound like I have been converted to a cult! Give it a go though, it really can help.

Book: 'Mindfulness for health: a practical guide to relieving pain, reducing stress and restoring wellbeing' by Vidyamala Burch and Danny Penman.