Mindfulness Meditation For Pain Management - Basics

How does pain reduction with mindfulness meditation work? In this informative talk, you will get some basic information about narrow- and wide-focus meditation, the principles of mindfulness meditation, and the mode of action why meditation can have a positive effect on pain.

Transcript

Hello and welcome.

I'm Thomas Pressel and I'll give you the basics about mindfulness meditation used for pain management.

How can mindfulness meditation be applied for reducing pain?

It sounds like two completely different things.

So I'll need to explain some basics of mindfulness meditation.

Then it's quite easy to see how meditation can help you with chronic pain.

First,

I have to make some kind of warning.

So what I do not want to suggest here is that you can meditate away everything.

So the most important thing is that if you have a new pain problem coming up,

That a medical professional is having a look at this and can start a treatment.

But if you get proper treatment and still have pain that you just have to put up with,

So to say,

Or that you have to stand,

Then some additional meditation can be really helpful.

So what does mindfulness meditation mean?

This is a meditation technique that means to be aware of everything that is.

There are basically two kinds of meditation.

The first is meditation with a narrow focus and the other meditation with a wide focus.

The narrow focus,

For example,

Is if you concentrate on an image or on a sound or maybe also on a candle flame.

This is narrow focus.

That means that you try to concentrate just on this and push everything else away.

This can be really helpful to get concentration,

But you're tuning out everything.

What we are doing with mindfulness meditation is that we are doing a wide focus meditation technique.

That means we are trying to concentrate on something,

But we are not pushing everything else away.

So all thoughts and all perceptions that are coming in are allowed to be registered in your mind.

But then you're coming back to the object of your meditation,

Which can be,

For example,

Breath or some counting or different things.

So you see that there is just a gradual difference between those two types of meditation.

And the advantage of the wide focus technique is that you're tuning into everything.

So this technique is much easier to carry over to your daily life.

So when you have stopped your meditation session,

You still can apply what you've learned to the time away from your meditation.

It's crucial.

And what we are trying to achieve during mindfulness meditation is that we are showing awareness of everything that comes,

But we're trying just to view it and not really being concerned or involved with it.

That means that we try not to have a strong emotional reaction to feelings or memories,

For example.

And on the other hand side,

We are trying to avoid the so-called running commentary.

So just to give you an example to understand what I mean.

When you're sitting in meditation and maybe you hear the noise of a train going by,

And then it often happens that you notice,

Oh,

This is a train.

Then your mind goes on,

Oh,

It's eight o'clock.

This might be the train going to London.

Well,

It's a little bit late.

Maybe the train is late.

Well,

Those trains are late all the time.

What has happened?

And so on and on and on.

So I suppose you get the idea.

And this is what we try to avoid.

So we are just being aware of the train sound,

But we are not going to start a commentary and we are not going to have an emotional reaction.

Of course that can happen,

But we are trying to go back to our meditation object as soon as we are aware that our thoughts have gone astray.

So how does that apply to pain?

Well,

When having pain,

This always has an emotional component.

And understandably,

It's nearly always negative.

So having pain is no fun,

Of course.

So you will have some negative emotions.

And you'll also have some commentary in your mind in most of the cases.

So,

For example,

When you're noticing back pain,

And then you might think,

Oh,

It's hurting so much.

And I don't know what to do.

And it might get worse.

And what could happen?

I could lose my job.

And so on and on and on.

So you will start a train of thoughts and it's negative.

And this is a component that makes pain worse.

So when we're sitting,

Walking,

Lying in meditation,

What we're doing with mindfulness meditation is that we are being aware of something,

In this case of pain.

We're just having a look at it without commenting on it,

And without having a negative emotional reaction.

We are trying even to be friendly towards that painful sensation.

And the key thing is,

Only when you're being aware of something,

Then it can change.

So in mindfulness meditation,

You're even talking about the 2A,

About awareness and acceptance.

Awareness and acceptance.

That means you're noticing the pain,

You're having a close look at that pain and what is happening inside of your body,

But you're accepting that it's there.

So this sounds a little bit counterintuitive.

You want to have less pain,

So how can you just sit there and say,

Oh,

I'm accepting your pain.

But the interesting thing is,

With full awareness and less negative emotions towards your pain,

It can change.

And there is a huge amount of scientific evidence with particular and different mindfulness meditation programs,

That for a large percentage of people with chronic pain,

This can be alleviated with mindfulness meditation.

It's not completely clear why that happens,

But it is thought that this awareness and acceptance can lead to relaxation of the body and it can reduce the negative emotions that play a key role in pain chronification.

So this is the connection between mindfulness meditation and pain reduction.

Just to give you the basics.

But I also have to say,

This is no short path,

No fast solution.

It doesn't mean to sit down in a maybe 10 to 15 minutes meditation session and have your meditation teacher give you some guidance and then you're getting up from your meditation cushion and you're saying,

Oh wonderful,

My pain has gone away.

So this unfortunately will not happen.

It needs a meditation practice over a longer time,

Which would mean weeks to months.

And you can also have times when absolutely nothing happens,

When you're stuck,

When you're thinking that this will not help me.

And you could also have meditation sessions when you're saying,

Oh,

Just noticing that pain all the time doesn't work,

It just hurts more.

And then for many people,

When you're doing classic sitting meditation,

Just this sitting over a period of time is painful.

So while meditation can be of extremely high helpful effect for you,

It's not guaranteed and it takes practice.

And this is what I want to share with you here,

To share with you a meditation course that is concentrating on basic mindfulness meditation,

But which is also giving you some hints about dealing with body pain or emotional pain.

And to make it possible for you to ask questions and clarify problems that arise during your practice.

So thank you for listening.

And I'm looking forward to hearing to you with questions or comments.

Thank you.