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! 

Zen Meditation Can Help Bring Pain Under Control

People who engage in Zen meditation do feel pain, new research reveals, but they don't think about it as much.


The observation could have a bearing on the treatment of chronic pain among patients struggling with the impact of conditions such as arthritis and back pain.



Pierre Rainville, a researcher at the University of Montreal, and his colleagues report their findings in the journal Pain.


"Our previous research found that Zen meditators have lower pain sensitivity," said senior author Rainville in a news release from the journal. "The aim of the current study was to determine how they are achieving this."


"Using functional magnetic resonance imaging [MRI], we demonstrated that although the meditators were aware of the pain, this sensation wasn't processed in the part of their brains responsible for appraisal, reasoning or memory formation," Rainville noted. "We think that they feel the sensations, but cut the process short, refraining from interpretation or labeling of the stimuli as painful."


The authors' observations stem from work with 13 Zen meditators exposed to a painful heat stimulus.


Functional MRIs were conducted of the meditators' brains as the team gathered their self-reported perceptions of pain.


Compared with an equal number of non-meditating study participants, the researchers found that highly experienced meditators reported lower pain responses, as well as less activity in those parts of the brain (the prefrontal cortex, amygdala and hippocampus) that are linked to cognitive processes, emotion and memory.


"Our findings lead to new insights into mind/brain function," study first author Joshua Grant, a doctoral student at the university, said in the same news release. "These results challenge current concepts of mental control, which is thought to be achieved by increasing cognitive activity or effort. Instead, we suggest it is possible to self-regulate in a more passive manner, by turning off certain areas of the brain, which in this case are normally involved in processing pain."


"The results suggest that Zen meditators may have a training-related ability to disengage some higher-order brain processes, while still experiencing the stimulus," added Rainville. "Such an ability could have widespread and profound implications for pain and emotion regulation and cognitive control. This behavior is consistent with the mindset of Zen and with the notion of mindfulness."


For more on meditation, visit the U.S. National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine.


Resource: http://www.healthscout.com/news/1/647215/main.html

Mediguard.org

www.mediguard.org

Highly recommended if you have a lot of medications. It keeps track of your meds. Shows interactions, date you began med, health conditions, risk ratings and more. Here's there about us section:

MediGuard was created by professionals with decades of experience in healthcare market research, clinical drug development, and drug safety. Initially funded by Quintiles Transnational, the world’s leading provider of clinical research services, the primary purpose of MediGuard is to promote better communication and research about drug safety. Specifically, the goal was to create a community of patients profiled by medication and condition that are both accessible and motivated to participate in research.

We believe that the patient can play an important role in improving drug safety. Today, public and private organizations spend millions of dollars on drug safety research and risk management programs-often with disappointing results. At MediGuard, we feel strongly that connecting patients and researchers will allow us to conduct better, faster and more cost-effective research. Our end goal is to publish data that ultimately improves patient satisfaction, safety, and health.

How to Meditate - Guided Meditation Techniques - Buddhist Meditations

How to Meditate - Guided Meditation Techniques - Buddhist Meditations

VIDEO'S - http://www.how-to-meditate.org/videos/

Why Learn to Meditate

Eventually, we will be able to stay happy all the time, even in the most difficult circumstances.

The purpose of meditation is to make our mind calm and peaceful. If our mind is peaceful, we will be free from worries and mental discomfort, and so we will experience true happiness; but if our mind is not peaceful, we will find it very difficult to be happy, even if we are living in the very best conditions. If we train in meditation, our mind will gradually become more and more peaceful, and we will experience a purer and purer form of happiness. Eventually, we will be able to stay happy all the time, even in the most difficult circumstances.

Usually we find it difficult to control our mind. It seems as if our mind is like a balloon in the wind – blown here and there by external circumstances. If things go well, our mind is happy, but if they go badly, it immediately becomes unhappy. For example, if we get what we want, such as a new possession or a new partner, we become excited and cling to them tightly. However, since we cannot have everything we want, and since we will inevitably be separated from the friends and possessions we currently enjoy, this mental stickiness, or attachment, serves only to cause us pain. On the other hand, if we do not get what we want, or if we lose something that we like, we become despondent or irritated. For example, if we are forced to work with a colleague whom we dislike, we will probably become irritated and feel aggrieved, with the result that we will be unable to work with him or her efficiently and our time at work will become stressful and unrewarding.

By training in meditation, we create an inner space and clarity that enables us to control our mind

Such fluctuations of mood arise because we are too closely involved in the external situation. We are like a child making a sandcastle who is excited when it is first made, but who becomes upset when it is destroyed by the incoming tide. By training in meditation, we create an inner space and clarity that enables us to control our mind regardless of the external circumstances. Gradually we develop mental equilibrium, a balanced mind that is happy all the time, rather than an unbalanced mind that oscillates between the extremes of excitement and despondency.
If we train in meditation systematically, eventually we will be able to eradicate from our mind the delusions that are the causes of all our problems and suffering. In this way, we will come to experience a permanent inner peace, known as “liberation” or “nirvana”. Then, day and night in life after life, we will experience only peace and happiness.