Pain management

It feels like pain is all around us:  Opioid abuse is in the news, healthcare reform is being debated in the US, and in the UK the (lack of) availability of cancer drugs is under close scrutiny. 

If we are unable to escape pain through other means, how can we manage it?  For many years I have been fascinated by Jon Kabat-Zinn’s ‘Full Catastrophe Living’, and in that book he offers a number of techniques that might help with pain management.  Have a look and let me know what you think -

• “Enter into the pain – tune into the sensations.  Be aware of the descriptions you give to the 'pain' – what does it actually feel like.  'Pain' is just the name, a thought, it is not the actual experience.  Feelings are just feelings, they are not you, they are not the whole of you.  If we can witness these thoughts and feelings, at a distance, then they cannot become us
• Remind yourself on a regular basis that you are a whole person who happens to have to face and handle pain
• If sitting is uncomfortable, try lying down or walking mindfully.  Close your eyes, tune in to your breathing, and watch your belly expand gently on the inbreaths and recede on the outbreaths.
• As detailed in the body scan, use your breathing to direct your attention down to the toes of your left foot.  Start working from there, maintaining moment to moment awareness.  When your mind is on one region of your body, the idea is to keep it focused on that region, feeling any and all sensations in that region (or lack of sensations if you don't feel anything), and breathing in to and out from that region. 
• Every time you breathe out, see if you can let your whole body sink a little more deeply into the surface you are lying on as the muscles all over your body release their tension and relax.
• Move your attention slowly through your entire body.  Tune in as you breathe into each region of the body in a few moments of stillness.  If your mind wanders, gently notice where it has gone and bring it back, using your breath as an anchor.
• As you move through a problem area of the body, see if you can treat it like any other part of your body that you come to focus on, in other words gently breathing in to and out from that region, carefully observing the sensations, allowing yourself to feel them and open up to them and letting your whole body relax and soften each time you breathe out.
• When it comes time to let go of that region and move up (if it helps, try saying 'goodbye' in your mind silently on an outbreath), and see if you can flow in that moment into calmness and stillness.
• If the pain does not change, just move on to the next region and direct your full attention to it.  If the pain does change, see if you can note precisely what the qualities of that change are.  Let them register fully in your awareness and keep going with the body scan.
• It is not helpful to expect pain to disappear.  Just keep up the watching and letting go, breath by breath, moment to moment
• Anything you notice about your pain, or about your thoughts or feelings, is to be noted non-judgmentally as you maintain your focus on the body scan.  You don't have to like it, you just need to keep repeating it.
• After a few weeks you can alternate between a body scan and sitting meditation or yoga postures.
• Remember, you are trying to find out about your pain, to learn from it, to know it better, not to stop it or get rid of it or escape from it.
• Ask yourself 'How bad it is in this very moment?', rather than dreading the next moment”

Chris Warren-Dickins is a Licensed Professional Counselor in Ridgewood, New Jersey.  He specializes in psychotherapy for couples, adolescents, men, and the LGBTQ+ community. 
Sessions are available in-person at 162 E Ridgewood Ave, Ridgewood NJ 07451, or via the internet or telephone. Book a consultation today www.exploretransform.com
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