Contents
We need pain. It protects against serious injuries, signals that something is wrong in the body. But the first desire for pain is to remove it. Painkillers “turn off” the pain in the mind, but the body continues to receive pain impulses. Here are some pain relief exercises to help reduce the pain.
1. Self trance
Researchers from the University of Tübingen (Germany), which has its own pain laboratory, consider hypnosis to be one of the best methods of pain relief*. Under hypnosis, operations, childbirth are easier, teeth stop hurting. We ourselves, without realizing it, try to put ourselves into a trance during pain attacks: we repeat the first phrase that comes to mind, we sway, hugging ourselves, making rhythmic movements with our arms or legs. And it really relieves the pain. In trance, painful irritation is perceived by the brain not as unpleasant, but as neutral: therefore, at the beginning of an attack, you can start to sway, or try to relax, remembering pleasant moments from your life, or focus your eyes on the pendulum and slowly count, introducing yourself into a light or deep trance.
Read more:
- How pain changes us
2. Laughter
Repeated experiments and observations show that a person who has something hurts can be distracted by something interesting or funny **. Watching humorous programs or videos on the Internet, watching animals play, reading funny books reduces the strength and frequency of pain attacks. Laughter triggers the release of “hormones of joy” endorphins, which not only reduce pain, but also increase immunity, helping to fight pain.
3. Stronger, even stronger
Viktor Frankl’s famous method of paradoxical intention, which consists of deliberately intensifying what you want to get rid of, applies to pain as well. But first you need to get acquainted with pain – mentally describe when it appeared, how it hurts, where it is in the body. When you feel the pain, try to manage it – slightly reduce, slightly intensify. If this works out, then reduce the pain to one small point – and then intensify it as much as possible. After a while, instead of pain, other sensations will appear, neutral or even pleasant.
Read more:
- Why teenagers hurt themselves
4. Pain-relieving sounds
Music helps relieve pain. The Cleveland Medical Center (USA) studied its positive effect on cancer patients***. Study participants who regularly listened to music reported that their pain after listening to music was not as severe and happened less often. Of the classical composers, Beethoven, Liszt and Debussy relieve pain well, but you can also use those melodies that you personally like, or, if the pain is not very strong, sing it yourself. It is advisable to treat music not as a medicine, but as an accompaniment to your condition. There are other pain-relieving sounds – these are, oddly enough, curses: a person who has the opportunity to swear properly is able to endure pain much longer than someone who does not have such an opportunity.
5. I am separate, pain is separate
The psychiatrist and philosopher Roberto Assagioli, creator of psychosynthesis, came up with a technique of disidentification that can be used when you need to stop being angry, afraid, and experiencing other negative feelings and sensations. In order to prevent pain from capturing the entire space of your body and soul, you can repeat: “I have pain. But I am not my pain.” You can try to imagine your body painted in one color, and the pain – painted in another. Then mentally remove the pain from the body and place it next to it. It is not necessary to completely remove the pain – after all, it is given in order to pay attention to something important. All these exercises only slow it down until the moment when you, together with a specialist, figure out where and why it came from and what it means.
* plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0083486
** rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/early/2011/09/12/rspb.2011.1373
*** ash.confex.com/ash/2013/webprogram/Paper65110.html