Traditional chronic pain management usually consists of
medication. This medication often creates an additional burden on
the body and may not be an option for some people. It can also be quite
costly.
Below you'll find ten of the most common, natural and non-toxic techniques I have found to be
effective. However, I would like to call to your attention, that I feel that the very best technique for managing chronic pain can be found in a particular type of mindfulness meditation, which you can learn in less than 90 minutes in this handy little booklet,
Mindfulness Over Chronic Pain.
You can also find an abundance of tips and techniques for managing pain and improving the quality of life in my affordable little handbook,
"Living Life
to the Fullest - Creative Coping Strategies for Managing Chronic Illness."
Try some of these holistic approaches for your chronic pain management
that are healthy for your body and cost you absolutely nothing.
These techniques are helpful for chronic pain such as headaches,
migraines, myofacial pain, muscular and connective tissue pain, organ
pain, back pain, fibromyalgia pain, TMJ, atypical trigeminal neuralgia and just pain in general.
1. Go Into Your Pain
Allow your pain to consume you and become one with it. Don’t
resist it. Just let it exist in its fullest extent. Welcome
it and embrace it.
When you resist pain it becomes stagnant, if
you go into it, it will flow through you and disintegrate.
This releases the power it has over you, changes it form and is one of the
most beneficial chronic pain management tips I can share with you. It is sometimes referred to as mindfulness or mindfulness meditation.
2. Breathe deep into the
pain.
Another priceless technique for chronic pain management.
Close your eyes and take a deep breath in through your nose with your
mouth shut. The abdomen should distend on inhale, not your chest,
and then exhale very slowly while focusing your mind and your breath
into the area of pain.
In your minds eye direct your breath into
the pain. Visualize the breath flowing into the painful area and
melting it away. Do this repeatedly until you feel it begin to
release and then move to another pain area and begin again. It
may take several breaths to release it. It may also take a lot of
practice to train your mind to focus into the pain.
I find this
exercise more effective when I can close my eyes, but it is also
helpful when your driving or in public places by doing the breathing
without closing the eyes.
Breathing in this manner releases endorphins, your bodies natural pain relieving neurotransmitter. You can learn more about this powerful chronic pain management technique by reading my and deep breathing exercises pages.
3. Stretch your face and
jaw
Open your mouth as wide as it will go and then gently push it to go a
little wider. When you feel the muscles in your jaw and
head pulling and tingling then relax it. This will probably
be excruciating and bring tears in your eyes, but it will release the
pain and you will have a lot of relief afterwards. Then pull your
lips forward over your teeth and stretch the front face muscles.
Experiment a bit, wherever you feel the pain and pull and stretch the
jaw in different directions until it hurts so bad you can’t stand it
and then relax it. After doing this several times then do the
breathing into exercise described above and breathe into all the jaw
muscles and connective tissue in the shoulders and collar bone.
4. Self Massage and apply
pressure to trigger points
Gently massage the area with pain.
Use your 2nd and 3rd fingers to rub softly in a circular motion. This
is also helpful on painful organs. Massage the trigger points on
collarbone, back of head or wherever they may be for you.
Sometimes it is more effective to use the thumb for deep penetration
into areas such as the collarbone. Gently press into the
trigger points until again it feels like you will go through the
ceiling and bring tears to your eyes and then release pressure.
Do this several times to each painful or tender area. Sometimes
just laying the hands on the painful area can give it some
relief. After applying pressure to painful areas and releasing
then do the breathing into technique described above.
5. Take a Hot Shower
Stand in the shower with the water as hot as you can tolerate and let
it flow gently over the painful areas. Also shut the bathroom
door and all windows so the heat and steam can build up in the room. It is
also helpful to apply pressure to trigger points, do gentle massage and
do the breathing into exercise while you’re in the shower.
6. Have an Orgasm or Two
An orgasm can bring about incredible relief to a severe headache,
generalized muscular pain, and even a migraine. If you have one
at the beginning of your migraine it is possible at times to stop it
from progressing.
Of course when you are in pain you may not feel
like having sex, and you certainly don’t want to get into the habit of
using sex as a pain reliever, but using it therapeutically now and then
is very beneficial. If you can muster up the desire and
your partner is willing then the act of sex itself, if you allow
yourself to become immersed in it, can provide great relief by drawing
your attention away from your pain.
When you have an orgasm it
has a natural pain killing effect on the body, by releasing endorphins and other feel good neurotransmitters. When sex is
not desired and to avoid using sex too often for relief, then
masturbation that ends with an orgasm will produce the exact same pain
killing effects.
For women, getting a clitoris stimulator, which can
bring about orgasm quickly, is very useful. That way you don’t
have to spend much time at it. For men, well most men now how to
handle themselves to bring about an orgasm in a rather short amount of
time. So, this is a great pain management technique that's lots of fun too!
7. Walking
If you are capable of walking and if you enjoy it, then walking briskly
for about 20 or 30 minutes can also have
pain-killing effects on the body, because it too boosts the endorphins. If you don’t walk and it is
something that is possible for you, then you might consider working on
building this habit into your daily routine.Another option is dance, just turn on a song and dance around the living room. Just one or two songs will do the trick.
8. Sleep or meditate
This chronic pain management technique is probably most useful with
milder forms of pain, although with some practice it can become
beneficial to more severe pain. Sometimes the pain may be
too great for this technique to work, because you may not be able to
achieve a sleep or relaxed state, but even a semi-sleep or
semi-meditative state can be useful too.
Lie down, close your
eyes and do the deep breathing exercise I described above to every part of your body
beginning with your head and work down to your toes. Then either
try to go to sleep or just meditate.
When we sleep the body
repairs and heals itself. A short period of sleep can often give
miraculous amounts of pain relief. If sleep is not possible then
just continue the deep breathing and think relaxing
thoughts.
Don’t allow yourself to think about what needs to
be done, your problems, or anything else. Focus completely on
your breathing. Repeating some form of mantra may be helpful to
keep the mind focused.
9. Nurture Spirituality
Feeding yourself spiritually has a positive effect on your overall well-being. If
your overall well-being is feeling better, then the impact of pain will
not be as powerful and disruptive. When you have meaning and purpose in your life, then you are more at peace with yourself and the world around you.
Do daily activities
that add meaning, purpose and richness to your life, such as getting in touch with nature,
writing, reading, singing, meditation, yoga, a social cause, a hot bath, special time with loved ones or
whatever it is that is nourishing for you. The things that make
you feel whole, alive and one with the Universe is your spiritual
food.
10. Express Your Pain
Verbally
Most of us know that it is beneficial to express our emotional feelings
and detrimental to our well being to let them build up. This can
also apply to our physical pain.
Physical pain and emotional pain are intertwined on a deep level. If we are enduring physical pain
you can bet that there is some emotional pain brewing in the back ground and vice versa.
Therefore, expressing your physical pain verbally can provide us with some relief. So let it out.
Tell someone understanding and compassionate how awful it is and what
it feels like. Vent, vent, vent. If you don’t want to
verbalize out loud, then try writing it down on paper without censoring
yourself. Be sure to allow yourself to feel the pain as you are expressing it, so that it will dissipate. If you need someone to talk to who understands
completely, you may find Cynthia's
holistic health phone counseling to
be helpful.
Sometimes you may need to do all the chronic pain management
suggestions above to get relief or you may only need to do one or
two. It varies from time to time. The degree of relief may also vary. For example, in my own life, it depends on factors such as what was the trigger, how long did I wait before doing the technique, what cycle of the month I was in and how intense the trigger was. However, I have used these techniques successfully for chronic migraines, myofacial pain and trigeminal neuralgia.
