Pain is Optional
Let’s play a bit of word association… just once.
I say a word and you say the first thing that comes to mind… ready?
Meditation.
Ok – what did you picture?
Person sitting cross-legged in lotus position? Closed eyes and fingertips and thumbs touching?
Maybe you heard peaceful music, an “ommmm…” sound or birds chirping – some noises of nature maybe.
Did you think, “relaxation” or “breathing” or “peace”?
All very good – no wrong answers here. But did you by any chance think of, “medication” or even “pain relief”?
Very amazing stuff meditation. Long known as a technique for deep focusing of the mind, understood by many to be an excellent relaxation method. Something calming, soothing, helping us wind down and re-center our energy.
It’s no secret that meditation has a profoundly measurable effect on our brains as evidenced by MRI scans done on monks that meditate.
And now – pain relief. Actual, honest to goodness scientific evidence shows that meditation has a greater effect on pain reduction than morphine.
Morphine!
Pain-relieving drugs like morphine typically are only approximately 25% effective. Yes, I was surprised when I first heard that too. You would expect that if you felt you had no choice but to take an addictive chemical to alleviate pain it would have a better than one quarter rate of effectiveness.
And the pain reduction effects of meditation, you ask?
Dr. Zeidan at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine did a study on the effects of meditation and pain relief and the results are astounding.
Get ready for this… 40% – meditation has a 40% effectiveness rate for reduction of chronic pain.
With no side effects. No addictive brain chemistry alterations. And all of the benefits of meditation on top of that.
There’s more – they found that when participants in the study continued to meditate regularly, the pain relief affects lasted longer and longer.
Reasons why this is such great news:
- Meditation is free.
- It’s simple.
- Anyone can do it – anyone.
- No chemicals.
- No undesirable side effects.
- There are literally thousands of ways to meditate – pick the one that you like the most (try one of my energy tools if you are curious).
Now it’s not a cure per se – for that you still need to get the congested emotional block released from your energy body, i.e. the root of the problem. And for that there are a number of methodologies both safe and effective such as medication intuition, guided hypnotherapy, intuitive healing, and more.
But what an amazing thing – scientific proof of a non-invasive, gentle, and effective mode of chronic pain relief.
If the idea of regular meditation seems daunting or time-consuming, don’t let it be. A few minutes a day, if that’s all you can spare, is still going to have some effect. The key is consistency, taking up a practice and following it.
If you have tried meditation before and gotten discouraged by an inability to focus or wandering mind, don’t worry. It happens to everyone – everyone. Be kind to yourself, keep bringing your mind back to your breathing, celebrate the few moments of focus you do achieve – and build on it from there.
You will feel the positive effects as long as you set your intention to keep at it.
So take two “oms” and call me in the morning.
Love your writing Robine! And I’ll take a bottle of om’s please! Meditation is really on the rise again in popularity. It gives a person a feeling of empowerment over stress, pain and many other things in our society that disempower us. So glad you wrote about this!
Lynn
♡
We are kindred spirits my friend. I always say that meditation is my medication without it I would need alot of meds. Thank you for your writings as evidence to what I have been preaching.
This is ANOTHER great article. I suffer with chronic back pain. I am going to have to try this. I never knew meditation was so powerful.
Fun writing! Love it. And I love that you make it so accessible. For decades people have been telling me “I tried to meditate, but it’d so hard.” Now I can send them here 😉
Thanks Robine for such a motivational article. For so many of us, our body and our mind are so disconnected and meditation can really help reconnect and ground us. I do a short meditation first thing in the morning that really helps me start my day with a clean slate, full of abundant energy to conquer whatever needs to be done. I also do a short meditation right before bed that really helps clear and calm my mind so that I can fall asleep so much faster and sleep so much deeper. Meditation–definitely a fantastic prescription for health. Thanks!
Great article, Robine! And I haven’t thought of meditation for pain relief, actually, so great suggestion for those who are suffering. I have had a meditation practice for 24 years now (hard to believe it’s been that long) and it has made all the difference in the world to me in terms of maintaining a 50 lb weight loss and freedom from other addictions. This is why we teach it to all our clients who want to break free from addictions…one cannot maintain the same level of stress and expect to successfully abandon their old habits…they need to find new, positive ways to de-stress and foster an internal environment for emotional healing. Thanks so much for your simple tips!
Thank you for the reminders Robine! I love meditating but sometimes do not set aside the time to practice it.