Dear Reader,
Chronic pain is one of the biggest concerns patients ask me about. Drug companies make billions selling products they say will solve your problem. But their products don’t offer a real solution. In fact, they often come with severe side effects, like increased risk of heart attack or in some cases, death.
But you don’t need drugs to deal with pain. You have more control over your experience of pain than you think. I’ll show you a simple exercise you can do right now that will ease your stress and lower your pain level. First, I’ll show you why stress and pain can get to a chronic, or unending state.
When patients come with pain I run a few tests. I check the level of cortisol, your stress hormone and DHEA, your “times are good” hormone. When these two are out of balance, your life can get tough.
When our ancestors lived in their original, native environment, life was generally quiet. There was no traffic or loud sounds. You never faced the threat of losing your job or filing for divorce or bankruptcy. The biggest stress usually involved being chased by wild animals or getting caught in a storm.
But those were always temporary stresses. And when they occurred, their bodies released cortisol to help them cope. Cortisol shuts down your long-term management systems and allows you to put all your energy into the crisis at hand. When the stressful situation is over, DHEA is released and you regain a sense of well being.
But when your stress buttons are pushed every day, cortisol stays in your blood stream much longer than it should. It’s like an alarm bell that never stops ringing. Over time, your muscles lock up and your body has a hard time performing its daily tasks. This is the beginning of chronic pain.
You can directly influence these hormones by learning a few techniques that help you cope with stress. When I was in India, I learned meditations that release stress and strengthen your focus and sense of stability. Some of them are as easy as sitting on the edge of a chair, keeping your back straight and counting your breaths as you exhale.
This is effective, but it takes a lot of practice. Other meditations that use visualizations can help you release stress and pain right away. Here’s one I learned from The Hypnosis Network:
You can do it sitting up or lying down: Your choice. Start by inhaling through your nose – holding your breath for a moment – and then exhaling through your mouth. While you’re doing this, feel your muscles starting to unwind and visualize these simple words: Breath = Comfort.
As you continue to breathe slowly, focus your concentration on the muscles of your eyes. You tend to hold a lot of tension in your eyes and face. And this leads to chronic conditions throughout your body.
As you breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth, imagine this feeling of comfort moving from your eyes up towards your brow, around your ears and over your head. As your face starts to relax, bring the corners of your mouth up into a gentle smile.
Allow yourself to release everything you may be holding on to… Fear, worry, constriction… all of it drops away as this feeling of comfort works its way down your body. Continue until you reach the tips of your toes.
This meditation helps break the chain of compulsive responses to your environment. Do it often enough, and you’ll find you don’t get as stressed out as you used to…
For more pain solutions, CLICK HERE.
To Your Good Health,
Al Sears, MD