Mindfulness and chronic pain

[Niloc]

Does anyone have any experience of practising Mindfulness for chronic pain and discomfort? I had some wisdom teeth removed 2 years ago and have been left with a persistent ache which is exacerbated by talking. Having been informed that there is nothing that can be done, I was wondering how Mindfulness would help in these circumstances.

Niloc.

[Gareth]

Mindfulness won't make your pain go away. But it can transform the way that you relate to your pain.

There is a famous Buddhist parable, it may be even teachings from the Buddha himself. It talks about pain coming in two arrows. The first arrow is the physical pain, which we can do very little about. The second arrow is the thoughts and the suffering that we add on top of the pain itself.

Mindfulness can help you a great deal with the second arrow.

[Cheesus]

Very well put, Gareth.

Niloc, I recall seeing a guided mindfulness meditation for chronic pain somewhere. I will see if I can dig it out for you.

Alex

[Cheesus]

A lot of material here. I can't vouch for the quality of the material itself, but I know that the teacher is experienced and well thought of.

http://www.audiodharma.org/series/57/talk/1783/

[Enigma]

In my experience, mindfulness definitely assists with changing how I am relating to pain in day to day life.

I've found that with chronic neck and back pain, being mindful of the bare sensation without identifying with it has profoundly transformed my experience of the pain itself. As mentioned above, the parable of the two arrows is especially relevant here. The first arrow is the physical sensation of pain, which there is no avoiding. The second arrow, however, is the mental anguish we layer on top of the physical sensation, compounding and magnifying the experience of suffering exponentially.

We face a choice: suffer pain or be mindful of the pain in and of itself. It is a matter of choosing between identification through participation ("I am in pain") and noticing through observation ("pain is arising"). Pain loses its hold over us once we cease identifying with it.

[piedwagtail91]

this is a piece i found from christopher germer.

Pain x Resistance = Suffering

"There's a simple formula that captures our instinctive response to pain:
Pain x Resistance = Suffering
“Pain” refers to unavoidable discomfort that comes into our lives, such as an accident, an illness, or the death of someone we love.
“Resistance” refers to any effort to ward off pain, such as tensing the body or ruminating about how to make pain go away.
“Suffering” is what results when we resist pain. Suffering is the physical and emotional tension that we add to our pain, layer upon layer.
In this formula, how we relate to pain determines how much we’ll suffer. As our resistance to pain is reduced to zero, so is our suffering.
Pain times zero equals zero. Hard to believe?
The pain of life is there, but we don’t unnecessarily elaborate on it.
We don’t carry it with us everywhere we go.
An example of suffering is spending hours and hours thinking about how we should have sold our stocks before the market collapsed or worrying that we might get sick before a big upcoming event. Some amount of reflection is necessary to anticipate and prevent problems, but we often get stuck regretting the past or worrying about the future.
Pain is inevitable; suffering is optional. It seems that the more intense our emotional pain is, the more we suffer by obsessing, blaming ourselves, and feeling defective. The good news is that since most of the pain in our lives is really suffering—the result of fighting the experience of pain—we can actually do something about it."

Christopher K. Germer, PhD "The Mindful Path to Self-Compassion"

[mermer]

Our mind controls our body. Where it goes the body will follow. But I don't think it will work for chronic pain. Somehow maybe it may help when we divert our attention to something else. But then it will just support the medication. For me, I take neurontin 800 mg and try to enjoy things around.

[JonW]

Hi mermer,
That's an interesting point but of view but contradicts most of the findings of studies on mindfulness which, as a practice, is quite the opposite of diverting attention.
When Jon Kabat-Zinn first introduced mindfulness meditation into his US clinic back in '79, it was specifically designed for people with chronic pain and terminal illnesses. The positive results encouraged him to bring mindfulness to the wider world.
I recommend you read Kabat-Zinn's Coming To Our Senses.
All best,
Jon