Natural Health and Herbal Remedies Blog

EXERCISES IN PAIN FOR THE SELF-MANAGEMENT OF PAIN: THE INTEGRATION OF THE EXPERIMENTS WITH EVERYDAY LIFE

When we are discussing anxiety we were careful to bring the relaxing exercises into relationship with our ordinary way of living. We found that we could keep the same relaxed state of mind when we were walking along or doing simple tasks. By this means the calm and ease of the exercises came to pervade all aspects of our life. Now we follow the same principles in relation to pain.

We have learned to do the exercises with pinpricks and the burning string in the calm and relaxed state of mind that we have learned to induce in ourselves. Now we practise the same exercises in our normal everyday state of calm and relaxation, without any of the regression which goes with the mental exercises. We learn to do this gradually. First we do the pinpricks exercise in deep relaxation; then we do it with ourselves still relaxed, but less regressed. We are more alert; our eyes are more widely open, and we are much more aware of our surroundings and what is going on. By doing this gradually we find that these stimuli, which at one time would have been quite painful, now cause us no discomfort. In other words, our threshold of pain has been raised. When we can do this with pinpricks, we proceed to practise in the same way with the burning string.

We are now bringing the effect of the exercises into our everyday life. We find that minor incidents which in the past would have caused us pain or discomfort are now no worry to us at all. When such incidents arise, we are less easily disturbed because of our increased tolerance of pain, and if the stimulus is sufficiently severe that we find we are on the verge of pain, we quickly relax in the way that we have learned, and the threat of pain passes off.

*143\57\2*

RelatedPosts:

• INFERIOR WAYS OF COPING WITH STRESS: DROPPING-OUT AND STRESS
• WARNING SYMPTOMS OF STRESS: RASH DECISIONS AND INSOMNIA