No one wants to be in pain. And certainly no one wants to be in pain for a long time. Chronic pain has many causes and many paths to finding relief. Mindfulness is one tool you can utilize to help you find relief.
What is Chronic Pain?
Generally, pain is divided into three categories: acute, sub-acute, and chronic. Acute pain encapsulates the first three weeks of new pain. Sub-Acute pain is pain lasting between 3 to 12 weeks.
There are instances where healing times take longer. Factors like age, severity of injury, and surgery all play a role in how long you may experience pain. Typically, though, your body’s ability to heal should occur within 3-4 months.
When you experience consistent pain that limits your ability to progress and return to normal activity after that 3–4-month time period- apart from the factors listed above- your pain is considered chronic.
Factors of Chronic Pain
Many factors play a role in your pain experience. They are categorized into three components: biological, psychological, and sociological.
Biological factors:
- Injury
- Tissue damage
- System dysfunction
- Diet
- Sleep
Psychological Factors:
- Mood
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Traumatic life events
- Cognitive inclination
Sociological Factors:
- Socioeconomic
- Environment
- Access to care
Pain has a very important role to play. It is our body’s danger detection system. It warns us to stop, pay attention, and seek help. Pain is essential for our survival. If we did not have it, we would not live very long. If we step off a curb and fracture our ankle while running, pain tells us to stop running on it.
The nervous system is the part of the body that transmits these signals between the brain and the rest of the body and from the body to the brain. Your nervous system is made of the Central Nervous System, CNS (Brain & Spinal Cord) and the Peripheral Nervous System, PNS (the rest of your body).
Our nervous system functions to allow us to experience our world. It controls our ability to move, breathe, see, think, respond and more. Since the experience of pain is both a body and brain phenomena, it is important to look at the brain and its part to play in helping you find relief. If you experience chronic pain, your nervous system (the CNS or PNS or both) can become sensitive – meaning it has an increased response to stimuli. However, chronic pain sensations may not always be a reliable signal of danger or harm. It’s like a false alarm that leads you to think you are in danger even when you are not. When you sense you are in danger your body’s response may be stress or fear. Stress/fear may further sensitize your pain system, making your pain feel worse.
Your Brain and Pain
When you live in a state of chronic stress – and experiencing persistent pain can create stress-, an imbalance between your sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems occurs. AND your brain and the neural pathways your brain creates can change. One reason for this is the receptors that transfer information from your nerves to other nerves throughout your body have a half-life of 48 hours. Since they have such a short life, your brain is constantly deciding how many more receptors are needed in a certain area moment by moment. If more receptors are activated, you will have a more sensitized nerve and more information coming into the brain to process. It is this negative neuroplastic change that creates increased sensitivity. The good news is you can train your brain to have the opposite effect and result in decreased neural sensitivity.
Mindfulness to Help Chronic Pain
One approach that can help down-regulate your nervous system and find relief for your chronic pain is mindfulness. Your brain and your body work together to determine how much sensation (pain) will occur. Taking control of the brain aspect can prove to be helpful.
If you focus on your pain with fearful, anxious, worried thoughts, you may give your brain more power to activate more receptors to your body. However, if you redirect your thoughts, you may be able to decrease your overall pain.
Mindfulness is about tuning into your present moment awareness and learning how to observe and experience the sensations with a neutral response. Recognizing your response to a situation allows you to decrease your reaction to it. It might look like this: when your pain flares, instead of focusing on how bad it is, how it’s going to ruin your day and filling yourself with anxiety that it will not end, take a moment to breathe and remind yourself that you are on a healing process, what you are feeling is normal, and your body is safe. Just by reframing your thoughts, you can reduce the sensitivity of your nervous system and reduce your pain.
I love using meditation for chronic pain- and it does not have to be long. Some apps I utilize for mindfulness and meditation are Waking Up: Meditation & Wisdom and Curable– the first is free and the second is designed specifically for those in chronic pain.
Research shows that just a few minutes per day can produce beneficial results. Who wouldn’t want a more relaxed physical and mental state, improved focus, reduced stress level, downregulated nervous system and a reduction in pain?
If you are struggling with chronic pain, schedule an appointment with a Spooner therapist today so we can work together to find you relief.