If you have chronic pain or you can’t seem to resolve the discomfort from an injury, how can mindfulness help you?
Mindfulness has become quite a “buzzword” in recent years. It signals a way to help with everything from anxiety to depression.
But, that isn’t to say mindfulness is simply a trend. This practice has gained a lot of attention for some very good reasons.
Mindfulness is the practice of being present. When you choose to be mindful, you’re letting go of the past and you’re not worrying about the future. You can probably see why it would help with a variety of mental health issues, including the effects of physical pain.
1. Mindfulness Relieves Emotional Tension
Mindfulness isn’t some magical force. Realistically, it can’t take away the things causing pain in your body. But, it help rid the body of emotional tension.
Pain tends to fuel worry in your mind. You may not even realize it, but you can build a sizeable fearful of what pain means or how it might grow. Pain usually means something isn’t right physically, so that can cause a lot of fear and tension about what you can’t see or know. Mindfulness, on the other hand, helps you to observe (without judgment or assumption) bodily and reactions you do see and feel. This can be empowering, helping you relax and intentionally release building emotional tension. You may even discover that physical pain starts to feel less intense.
2. It Allows You to Be More Than Your Pain
Mindfulness allows you to focus on your whole self, not just your pain. If you have a chronic condition, you might feel as though your pain defines you.
Being mindful helps you to see past that. When you start to observe the moment and your whole self intentionally, you’ll likely spend more time appreciating the moment. Thereby pain gets less time and attention and has less power. You, in turn, may feel more in control.
3. Mindfulness Soothes Anxiety
Oddly enough, mindfulness can help you to accept your pain or your condition, rather than fighting it. You likely spend so much time fighting against your pain that once again, it takes over everything. As a result, you have pain, and an additional layer of anxiety about the pain.
By accepting that you will have moments of pain, your mind and body can prepare for them. This doesn’t necessarily take the pain away, but when you accept that it’s there, it may not come as such a jarring shock. As a result, the discomfort may feel more tolerable.
4. Mindfulness Promotes More Self-Compassion
Self-compassion is huge when it comes to managing your pain. It’s so easy to get down on yourself when you’re not feeling good. Because mindfulness forces you to be in the moment, you can practice self-compassion.
When you’re kinder to yourself, your pain can start to release because there isn’t so much built-up tension and emotional turmoil.
5. Mindfulness Relieves Hopelessness
One of the big problems with pain is the thought that it will never go away. That can add a sort of heaviness to the way you feel, and can actually make the pain feel worse.
Mindfulness allows you to focus solely on the present moment. You don’t worry about the future or how you’ll feel, and you don’t make assumptions. Instead, you focus on the present moment. While it may not always feel good, it does feel less overwhelming.
6. Mindfulness Reduces Overall Stress
Let’s face it – pain can exacerbate stress and anxiety. As you already know, mindfulness can help with both. Again, it’s important to understand that physical pain often feels worse because of emotional/mental attachments to it.
By eliminating some of the stress caused by pain, you can actually eliminate some of the pain, itself.
As you can see, mindfulness is more than just a “buzzword.” If you struggle with any kind of pain and you’re looking for an alternative solution that can help, mindfulness may be the answer.
Feel free to contact me to learn more about how mindfulness can help you with physical pain.
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