I am Tracy Stein.
I'm a psychologist and I'm fellowship trained in the management of chronic pain.
And today I want to share some things that are actually good news and can help you to dial down the severity on your pain and the distress and hopefully help you start living,
Feeling and doing better overall from this moment on.
So one of the things that I've noticed in my clinical practice and that their research has shown is that the brain is absolutely the master controller when it comes to experiencing pain.
Without a brain,
You wouldn't be able to have pain.
And it's actually good that you have a brain because we need it for all kinds of other things,
As you know.
But what we know is that there's not one area of the brain that controls the pain experience.
You'll notice that in different areas of your brain,
Some deal with the severity of pain.
And by using some of the imagery that I'll talk about in a moment,
You can learn to dial that pain up or down.
You can notice too that some of the imagery will talk about moving your attention very mindfully.
If you have a mindfulness practice,
This will be especially helpful.
But moving your attention and your awareness like a flashlight beam from one thing to another.
And you've probably already noticed that when your attention is really engaged in something else,
Whether it's external,
Like you're at a movie you're really enjoying.
And you're so engrossed in it that maybe for that two hours you didn't really feel your pain as much or even at all.
Or it just was less bothersome.
You'll notice that moving your attention and becoming really absorbed in something else in your own body,
Like finding a place of neutrality,
Like the tip of your nose or the lobe of an ear,
Or finding something outside of you,
Immediately outside of you,
Like the sensation of air two or three inches outside of your body and breathing into that.
All of these things can turn down the distress that people very often feel when they're dealing with chronic pain.
And by the way,
That distress tends to increase pain severity and decrease pain coping.
So anything we can do.
To move our awareness,
To reframe the experience.
And to engage with other parts of ourselves is going to be helpful.
So the imagery that I have here on Insight Timer will be a combination of things that help you move your awareness to something more neutral inside of you,
To something else outside of you.
Or to create another experience in your mind,
This does change the experience of pain for the better.
Other things that can be really helpful that are also free,
Listening to music.
There's research showing that listening to music you actually like can help you with everything from engaging with physical therapy better to just having,
Again,
Less distress and less severe pain.
You can combine these things,
Music,
Imagery,
Mindful breathing,
Non-painful touch is another thing.
So if you find that your pain is localized to maybe one specific area.
Having neutral or pleasant touch in another area.
Actually interrupts some of that pain signal from the area that's been in pain.
It's actually why when we stub our toe,
We instinctively grab it.
It's a reflex but also it is like if you think about the brain and the spinal cord is kind of like this very narrow highway,
Very narrow kind of two-lane highway.
This is kind of an oversimplified way of describing it.
You know,
If there's only room for one car going up the highway and one car going down the highway and you introduce another vehicle going up to the brain and maybe instead of the pain vehicle,
Maybe it is the massage vehicle or maybe it is the music vehicle.
All of those things can help turn down the volume on your pain and they can also help you to just feel less distressed and the more calm and centered you feel,
The less pain you're actually going to experience.
So I invite you to listen to some of the imagery.
Let me know what you think.
I'm always curious to see what people would find helpful.
And just remember that in the mind,
All things are possible.
You can go anywhere.
You can do anything.
People have done incredible things using their mind alone.
And anything that I offer can be used in combination with other things you already find helpful,
Whether they're medical or other meditation practices and so forth.
So I hope this is helpful.
Please do leave me a comment or a question and I'm happy to answer any of them.
I wish you all the very best now and always.
