pain management with meditation?

[milktea]

i have heard that it is possible to tune down pain level with meditation techniques...has anyone any luck with this?

[suzifrommd]

i have heard that it is possible to tune down pain level with meditation techniques...has anyone any luck with this?

I've found meditation and self-hypnosis very effective. There is all kinds of imagery that I've found helps. My favorite:

Imagine somewhere in your mind there is a control room that controls everything in your body. Picture it with all its switches and dials, hear the hum of the machinery.

Now find the knob that controls how much pain you feel. Imagine yourself in that room touching the knob. Think about what the knob feels like, looks like. When you turn the knob one way, your sensations are more intense. Turn it just a little and feel the pain go up just a bit. This proves to you that you indeed have control over your pain. Now turn the knob down. Turn it down a little bit and feel your pain subside slightly. You can turn it partway down and it will remove a portion of your pain. Don't turn it all they way down - you don't want to ignore pain altogether.

Once you learn how to do this you will find you can do it any time you need to.

Good luck Milktea.

[Tristan]

I just used over the counter stuff the first six weeks out if fear of pain. By then I was use to it. 

[Jennifer Snowskier]

I don't know if you would class it as meditation or what, I hate having the dentist drill my teeth, it has been a while since it has been done but when it was it was the lack of control and anticipating pain so any little thing felt worse. What I learned to do was visualize my favorite snow ski run. It's a black run and always takes a lot of concentration when I do it. (I'm not that good a skier) I will visualise myself skiing each bump twist and drop off from the top to the bottom. If fully occupies my concentration and takes my mind off anticipating pain. I have used it for other things as well when I need to divert my mind from black thoughts. Its good fun.

The other thing I do to fully relax is remember a clump of snow gums that I saw on a slope at Thredbo years ago. It was in the middle of a fall of snow and looked beautiful. From memory I just stood staring at it for about 15 mins. That image has stayed with me for years.

I think for me the first distracts me while the second relaxes me.

I am thinking that there is a bit of a trend here, something to do with snow.

[milktea]

I just tried counting down from 100 in decrements of 3 (100 97 94...) seems to have some use...

[Megan Rose]

I'm a life-long Zen student.  Zen meditation doesn't help the pain at all!  But, it does give a person the ability not to recoil from the pain.  Often times, the reaction to the pain is worse than the pain itself. 

When in painful situations, I focus on my breathing - try to bring it to slow, deep breathing.  And remind myself that the pain is temporary, that I can acknowledge it without letting it overwhelm me. 

It all sounds good - sometimes I'm not able to control my reactions as well as other times.  Good luck!

[Julo]

I´ve had so incredibly insane pains because of messed up GRS, fistula, colostomy, ileus (especially those!), urethra dilating and what not. Can´t even remember everything at once. To breath and relax is worth gold. And keep your eyes open, otherwise you will concentrate and dive in to the pain. It´s hard but possible. No magic to it, just training.