Helpful Ideas That May Ease Your Pain
Pain, no matter what the source of it, can be difficult and tiring to live with, especially if this pain is chronic. Pain has the potential to disrupt your daily life, and if extreme, can severely alter it. Living with chronic pain should be brought up with your doctor and controlled through a pain management plan that you both agree upon. However, here are some helpful ideas and tips on how to manage your pain through relaxation and calming activities.
Relaxation Breathing
The first thing you should employ to manage your pain is breathing techniques. To do this, close your eyes and take a deep and relaxing breath. Allow the air to come in through your nose while your mouth is shut. Do not allow your stomach to fill with air. However, let your abdomen do so.
Imagine yourself breathing out the pain when you exhale and focus on your breathing rather than the pain. While relaxation breathing may take a bit of practice, the idea is that eventually when you feel pain, you can resort to this type of calming breathing technique to help take your mind off the pain and put you into a relaxed condition.
Distraction
Along with breathing, it can be helpful to try to take your mind off of the pain by focusing on something else, like reading a book or watching television. The external stimuli can help to shift your attention from the pain you are experiencing, to what you chose to put right in front of you. This technique is known as distraction.
Exercise
Another calming technique to use when pain emerges is exercise. While it is not recommended for individuals who experience excessive pain, it is useful for those who have mild to moderate discomfort. However, if at any time you feel that your pain is increasing dramatically, do not be afraid to stop and relax. Exercise has long been shown to help with pain release because of many important aspects of exercise. It helps to release endorphins, strengthen muscles that could be causing pain, release tension and help improve sleep and sleep quality.
Find a daily exercise routine that works for you. It can be as simple as taking a walk around your block or it can be as strenuous as training for a marathon. No amount of exercise is too little. The important part is to find an exercise routine that helps to take your mind off of your pain. Some exercise routines or activities to try are aerobics, Pilates, Zumba, dance, and swimming. All of these have often been shown to improve the pain of many patients with chronic pain.
Meditation and Yoga
Along with exercise, meditation and yoga have been shown to have calming effects, especially when related to pain management. You can use yoga and meditation to help slow down your mind and center it away from the pain. The purpose of meditation and yoga is to help a person find their peaceful center, away from the chaos of everyday life.
Meditation can be a powerful and helpful technique to try, especially when your life is filled with chronic pain. If you are interested in meditation and/or yoga, sign up for a local class in your community. A professional yoga or meditation expert will be able to help you learn how to properly meditate or safely practice yoga, which will no doubt help you to manage and deal with your pain.
Final Thoughts
All of these techniques above are meant to help you deal with the pain you experience consistently. However, they will not take that pain away. By learning and mastering some of these techniques, you can control how pain affects your life and how you decide to live with it.