Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Guided imagery and meditation for chronic pain

I have found that meditation and guided imagery are very helpful with chronic pain. There are a ton of resources on the web for both. Search Meditation for chronic pain or guided imagery. Guided imagery is my favorite. Try to find a recording of it. So you can listen. Rather than read. If you read and remember the guided imagery and can do it again without reading than you're good to go though. I use a couple, and no longer listen or read anything. So I can use them while passenger in a car, waiting at the doctors office or anywhere! 

Once you get good at it you can put yourself into a trance like state and the pain goes way down!! 

One of my favorite very quick ones to do is to imagine a thermostat. Put your hands in your lap. Sitting up. This thermostat goes 1-10. Like a pain chart. Select where your pain is. Relax your body as much as you can. Let your shoulders down, take a few deep breaths. Visualize turning down that dial as your pain goes down. Keep repeating using whatever relaxation techniques you know of without getting up. Biofeedback, breathing, relax muscles head to toe, etc. go until u get that dial down to an acceptable level for u. Relax and stay in the moment for awhile. I usually do it for 1/2 hour to hour if I have time. Don't fall asleep. Lol. Then slowly ease out of it. This is one example of guided imagery. Like I said a quick one. The more detailed ones are much better. 

Meditation is not much different. There is a ton of resources on the web, books and ebooks. I will let you explore this on your own because it is a very personal experience to each person. 

Hope this helps you all. Thank you for reading my blog!! Gentle hugs to you all!