Meditation for Pain Relief: How to Meditate Your Pain Away
Meditation for Pain Relief: How to Meditate Your Pain Away
Mindful meditation for pain relief has been proven to decrease the mind's response to pain by 40-57% according to a discovery published in The Journal of Neuroscience. But how do you get these benefits when you're in so much pain you can't think? This article offers you easy meditation techniques to use for meditation for anxiety and pain relief.
But let's briefly discuss the research behind this great discovery.
THE RESEARCH: According Fadel Zeidan, Ph.D., in The Journal of Neuroscience, "Mindfulness meditation... significantly reduced pain unpleasantness by 57% and pain intensity ratings by 40%... Together, these data indicate that meditation engages multiple brain mechanisms that alter the construction of the subjectively available experience..."
So, what is Dr. Zeidan really saying? Not only is the brain "too busy meditating" to experience pain, but that meditation in and of itself significantly changes the structure of the brain to reduce pain. This research gives great significance to using meditation for pain relief.
BENEFITS OF MEDITATION: While this research shows one of the best benefits of meditation, i.e., pain relief, there are a few other physical benefits well worth noting:
Meditation lowers stress chemicals such as cortisol and adrenaline, both of which increase pain, anxiety and depression.
Meditation increases good chemicals such as endorphins that help the body stay healthier overall, which in turn lessens pain, anxiety and depression.
Meditation also boosts whole brain power which answers the question that many people are asking, "How can I increase my brain power?"
Meditation is one of the best relaxation techniques because of long-term and cumulative effects.
MINDFUL MEDITATION FOR BEGINNERS: When learning how to meditate, it is important to find easy meditation techniques. Why? Because learning mindful meditation can take years of study and practice, and unless you are completely devoted, the task may seem to be "too much work."
In particular, when you want to use meditation for pain relief, to put forth the effort to learn mindful meditation while feeling such pain can seem a bit daunting.
BRAINWAVE ENTRAINMENT: When you enter into a state of mindful meditation, your brain "shifts gears" to different electrical frequencies. Just like when you change stations on a radio, so your brain "changes stations" to vibrate at a different frequency. Brainwave entrainment is a way to electronically induce meditation and is one of the best types of meditation for beginners who want to use meditation for pain relief because it electronically "shifts your mind's gears" into the various states of alpha, theta or delta.
Alpha brainwaves: This is a light meditative state where you feel calm and relaxed. If you are doing meditation for anxiety or meditation to relieve stress, this light meditative state is fine.
Theta brainwaves: This brain state is a deeper state of meditation and is used for increased memory, focus and overall well-being.
Delta brainwaves: Now this is "where it's at" when you want pain relief. When your mind is in the delta frequency, you have increased immune function as well as put out chemicals that have a deep renewing benefit to your body.
But the delta brainwave state of mind is only achieved when we are in deep, restful sleep. So, if you have pain, which leads to insomnia, which leads to decreased sleep, which leads to less "delta time" for the brain, you are in a downward spiral.
HOW TO GET STARTED: It is easy to get started using brainwave entrainment:
Find a good brainwave entrainment audio that puts your brain down into at least 2.5 Hz for 20-30 minutes.
Set aside 30-45 minutes a day to listen to a brainwave meditation audio that puts you into the delta frequency. The best time to listen to it would be as you go to sleep at night.
Give yourself time to reap the benefits of this pain management technique. Your body has its own rhythm for healing, so give yourself time to develop your body's reserves to renew itself and feel good again.
SUMMARY: Meditation for pain relief has been scientifically proven to work. Using a brainwave entrainment meditation to put your brain into the appropriate brain frequency to achieve these results gives you one of the best types of meditation to use to get started right away and to keep going because you can meditate your pain away while you sleep!
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