Body Scanning for Pain Management
What is Body Scanning?
Body Scanning is a great pain management tool. I originally learned it in physical therapy while being treated for fibromyalgia. The PT taught me to scan my body and to notice any areas of discomfort, aches, or pain. Elizabeth Scott, MS in her article Body Scan Meditation stated, “The goal is not to relieve the pain completely, but to get to know it and learn from it so you can better manage it.”
How do you Start Body Scanning?
When you first begin, you are building the muscle memory of how to body scan. Then when you need it, you will easily be able to pull it forward.
Phase One
- Find a comfortable place and sit up with your feet on the floor.
- Close your eyes.
- Take a few deep breaths in through your nose and out through your mouth. Return to your normal breathing.
- Start at the top of your head and notice any areas of tension or discomfort.
- Move slowly through the rest of your body.
- Don’t get lost in your pain. Just notice.
- When you have finished, thank your body. Take a few deep breathes in and out. Open your eyes. You should feel more relaxed.
Now do it quickly so that you can perform scanning throughout the day. Do not save this just for intense pain. Whenever you feel discomfort, scan your body.
Body scanning is excellent to do right before you go to sleep. You might even notice that you fall asleep faster, and who wouldn’t like that?
Read MoreQuick Stress Reduction Tools
Quick stress reduction tools are needed now more than ever during this time of a pandemic and local and global unrest. Has your pain increased over the last few months? Well, stress and pain go hand in hand.
The American Psychological Association’s article Stress Effects on the Body states: “Chronic stress causes the muscles in the body to be in a more or less constant state of guardedness. For example, …migraine headaches are associated with chronic muscle tension in the area of the shoulders, neck, and head.
Read MoreTo Be Healed Does Not Equal Cured
To be healed does not equal to be cured when you have chronic pain because the chronic pain is persistent, incurable, and permanent.
But who doesn’t want to be free of all symptoms of a disease or a condition?
How much has it cost you physically and emotionally to NOT be healed?
If you are not cured of your chronic pain symptoms, does it mean you will never feel well?
Read MoreNational Migraine & Pain Headache Awareness Month
June is National Migraine & Headache Awareness Month
This is a quick blog to let you know some great sites for head pain. Take the time to research new treatment options.
Read MoreReduce Monthly Migraines
REDUCE MONTHLY MIGRAINES by 50% or more! After 50 years of headaches, I used an injectable medication for three months, and it reduced my migraines. In just three months! I want everyone who suffers to know about this exciting news.
Most medications are for use after the symptoms begin. Wouldn’t it be better to treat the cause and not have the headache start?
Read MoreMetaphors for Chronic Pain
I found new metaphors for my chronic pain while sitting in the Tillamook Rainforest for four days with no technology to distract me. During this period, I listened for wisdom.
Read MoreChronic Pain “It Is What It Is”
I watched Jerry Seinfeld’s “23 Hours to Kill” on Netflix last night. He was speaking about phrases that he doesn’t like and the first one he said was, “It is what it is.”
My husband and I started laughing because I use it when people ask about my chronic pain.
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Vacation!!!
I am currently on vacation and wrote this three days before we left. My husband and I feel excited and ready to go.
Read MoreWeather and Chronic Pain?
Weather and chronic pain go hand in hand. You may have heard someone say, “It’s going to rain tomorrow. I can feel it in my bones.”
What is Barometric Pressure?
“…barometric pressure is the measurement of air pressure in the atmosphere…” Read the Setra Systems blog to understand it from the scientific aspect.
Changes in barometric pressure affect many people with chronic pain. Weather and chronic pain work together.
Read MoreGOALS CHANGE with Chronic Pain
I used to have up to 100 goals a year and I completed them. I then created systems to work more efficiently so I could take on MORE while parenting, spending time with my husband, family, girlfriends and volunteering.
I loved goals. I had them created for 5, 10 and 20 years into the future.
Read MoreDoes Chronic Pain Control You?
How do you Heal?
Does chronic pain control you? Do you have days where the damage exists and controls your thoughts? Are you depressed about the things you can no longer do? Is thriving is so far away from where you are that you can only imagine being controlled by your pain?
Read MoreI Believe in Spring
Purple and pink crocuses dot the grass. Daffodils push up through the rain-soaked earth. The daphne’s fragrance permeates the air.
The next day I woke up to a light dusting of snow. Then a mighty deluge of Oregon rain for a few days. And yesterday the sun popped out. This all happened in one week.
Read MoreJust For Today Let Other’s Words Soothe Your Pain
Look for words that uplift you
If you are having a day where your thoughts keep turning to your pain, search out other’s writing that uplifts you. Sometimes just reading another point of view, can pull you into a new place and reduce your discomfort.
Read MoreChronic or Persistent Pain Basics
You need Chronic or Persistent Pain Basics in your pain management tools. If you are in the midst of a flare, this becomes even more important, so I am keeping this simple. Here’s a review of many of the tools that I have posted in past blogs.
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9 Easy Ways to Reduce Your Chronic Pain
Use this list to start the New Year and consciously reduce your pain.
Trust that they work. There is a reason that you’ve probably heard most of these suggestions. Why? Because they consistently help!
Read MoreMake your pain management tools list for the new year!
What tools are you using daily to help you with your pain?
Because chronic pain is so taxing on your mind and body, you need to take action to reduce it. You can look up how all the items on this list help reduce pain and you will find evidence-based proof. It’s science!
The New Year is a great time to update your existing list or build one for the first time.
Read MoreChronic Pain and Self-Care
If this is your season of celebration, please take a moment for your own self-care.
What can you do during this potentially busy season?
Read MoreShapeshifting Relieves Chronic Pain
What? Really? How? Shapeshifting?
In mythology, fairy tales, or shamanic lore, shapeshifting is typically defined as when humans change into someone or something else. One of the most common examples in movies and books is a werewolf. If you were bitten by a werewolf, you would then transform from a man into a wolf at every full moon. Completely!
Read MoreWords and Chronic Pain
“Never own a disease. Reduce the amount of time you talk about it. Refuse to allow illness a place in your consciousness.” RawforBeauty.com
Every time I read this it stops me in my tracks just as pain can stop me. I think about this and work on it daily in order to thrive. When my symptoms flare, it’s as if the disease is working to find a place in my consciousness.
Read MoreHolidays and Chronic Pain
Do you have to keep doing all the holiday traditions?
What is most important?
Is it your family? Is it your friends? Buying presents? Wrapping presents? Stuffing stockings? Decorating? Cooking? Cleaning? Caring for the emotional health of everyone else?
Read MoreChronic Pain Support Groups
I am in several online support groups for Trigeminal Neuralgia and Occipital and Glossopharyngeal Neuralgia. I have learned so much about these conditions, what gives relief, and what procedures have been successful for others because I joined five years ago.
Read MoreDistraction is the Most Powerful Analgesic
The Number one Thing you can do for Pain Relief
Distraction is the most powerful analgesic because it helps you stop catastrophizing every ache and pain. “… it appears to involve competition for attention between a highly salient sensation (pain) and consciously directed focus on some other information processing activity.” How Does Distraction Work in the Management of Pain?
Read MoreBrain Surgery
I recently had brain surgery to cure Trigeminal, Occipital and Glossopharyngeal Neuralgia.
Read MoreFriendship Distracts From Chronic Pain
Last month, I got to see two of my long-time girlfriends that I have known since 1997. You know. The kind that distance and time do not matter and when you get together it is as if no time has passed. This was not only good for my soul, but it was amazing how this visit distracted from my aches and pains.
Read MoreTrack Your Chronic Pain Health History
Without any notice, my neurologist of nearly three years quit. I was assigned to a new one and six months later the entire practice was no longer covered by my health insurance plan.
Read MoreI Retired From Who I Was Because of Chronic Pain
I retired from being me
At the beginning of the pain, I was just trying to get through each day. I went from doctor to doctor trying to figure out what was wrong with me while still living, working, volunteering, partnering, laughing and doing activities of daily life.
Read MoreThe Benefits of Chronic Pain
Note that it is probably too soon to see the advantages if you have just been diagnosed with chronic pain. Trust me. I live with a number of persistent pain diseases. There will come a time when you can’t help but reflect on the changes you have made.
Read MorePain Does Not Equal Harm
Pain does not equal harm. What? I admit that this was one of the hardest things for me to understand. How can that be? But I have nerves that are spasming. How is this not damaging them? Are you sure they are not getting torn each time this happens? No?
Read MoreGratitude Heals Chronic Pain
I did not say, “Cures Chronic Pain.” I have permanent incurable diseases however; I am healed more every day by the actions I take.
Read MoreTrigeminal Neuralgia and Chronic Pain
A quick blog today.
My video of my TN story posted today on the US Pain Foundation’s site. Click here to view the video.
Please know that there are many organizations putting research dollars into your chronic pain disease and offering helpful ideas on how to thrive in your daily life.
Read MoreSites Talking About Pain Awareness Month
In honor of attention being focused on those who live with chronic pain, I thought I would make a quick list of sites that are concentrating on helping you improve your life!
Read MoreSeptember is National Pain Awareness Month
You don’t have to do much searching on the Internet to find good pain resources for most diseases. Leaving the comfort of your home to find credible information and support is difficult if you are in the midst pain flares. What a gift to have this access at your fingertips.
Read MoreDistraction and Chronic Pain
I read somewhere that “Distraction is the most powerful analgesic of all.” I cannot find who said it, but I want to give thanks to this idea.
Read MoreHearing “You Manifested Your Illness” Causes More Pain
I have heard the following clichés during my years with chronic illnesses:
You attracted this for a reason. Think positive. Think happy thoughts. God never gives you more than you can handle. When one door closes another one opens. Your pain can be a blessing if you look at it from the right perspective.
Read MoreTasers, Metaphors and Chronic Pain
The Taser like pains raged through my head again. My medications seemed to be less effective as time passed with this permanent and incurable disease of Trigeminal Neuralgia (TN). I told others that it felt like a Taser was shot into my head. People with neuralgia pain will often use this descriptor. I certainly did. Still do. Yet I have never been tased.
Read MoreScan your body to reduce chronic pain
I was having lightening like stabs and jolts in the left side of my head, and jaw and eye and I automatically started scanning my body. This is a process I learned over 25 years ago when I was first diagnosed with Fibromyalgia. The goal was to notice what was happening in all areas, not just those that felt painful.
Read MoreChronic Pain and the Silver Linings
My longtime friend was telling me about another procedure she had for her bladder. She spent the last few years dealing with the after effects of cancer and radiation.
She said with her usual good humor and sarcasm, “Well at least I have a family camping trip coming up. Silver linings!”
Read MoreFlares and Chronic Pain
The recent flare was gone…
As I opened my eyes this morning, I knew the recent flare was gone. The low burning and ache that is always with me was still there, but the last three day’s assault to my body and psyche had dissipated.
Read MoreI am not ill. I just have chronic pain.
“The problem with complaining about your health is that it tends to draw us to the actual experience of illness…” A complaint Free World
Read MoreIs Your Chronic Pain Permanent and Incurable?
“Can you accept that your pain is permanent and incurable?” asked my Acceptance and Commitment therapist during our second session.
Permanent and incurable? I felt the question in my gut. Heavy. Weighty. Dark. Sticky. As if a shadow had run across my whole being in that moment and landed in my gut.
Read MoreYou Did Not Attract Your Chronic Pain
You did not ask for this. You did not attract this. You owe no karmic debt.
You simply have chronic pain. Do not add more punishment to what you are already going through or allow others to chastise you with their words.
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