Meditation for pain

What is meditation?

“Meditation is a practice where an individual trains the mind or induces a mode of consciousness, either to realize some benefit or for the mind to simply acknowledge its content without becoming identified with that content, or as an end in itself.”- (Lutz, 2008)

The way I define meditation is either focusing on one thing or nothing at all. The most essential things to focus on during meditations are your breathing, your surroundings, or one thought that is in your mind. Often, when you meditate, you are called to focus on your breathing and to try not to think about anything else that is on your mind, just the way your lungs fill up and then collapse down again. Some might call this “a grounding experience” or “enlightening”. For some people this type of diction scares them away or makes them feel like this practice is illegitimate, but in reality it is just a relaxation method.

Meditation for pain relief

Recently I went to a Buddhist themed meditation group that meets at the Federated Community Church here in Flagstaff. The group does guided meditations, breathing meditations, self-meditations, and even walking meditations. When I decided to go to this meditation group for the purpose of the project, I did not know what to expect. As we sat down, we started with some deep breathing. After we were calmed down from our day, we started a discussion about our inner peace. For this particular section, it is helpful to know a little bit about Buddhism to understand the nature of this meditation group.  Buddhism cannot only be classified as a religion, but also a philosophy. Some sects of Buddhism don’t even believe in a god. A main idea throughout Buddhism is to be at peace with the present. In our culture today, our lives are plagued with regrets of the past and worries for our future. Our minds are hardy in the present moment. And even when they are in the present moment, we often have a discontentment and feel the need to change something, or we are unhappy. When one is in pain and in the moment, they often wish they could change the fact that they are in pain. This person is not at peace.

When I was with this group, they explained something to me. First of all, it is hard to always be at peace. No one is going to sit there and say to themselves, “I am fine with being in pain. It doesn’t bother me; I am at peace.” You might be uncomfortable; that does not mean you cannot strive for peace. If your hand is in pain, our society might be quick to focus on it and yell, “Where’s the icepack? Where are the pills? Where’s the pain relief?” At this group, they sought to focus on something else. If your hand is in pain, focus on your feet, or wherever, wherever’s not in pain. Keep your mind locked on the fact that your toes, your foot, your leg have no sensation op pain at all; be at peace with that while trying to ignore your hand. This is not easy and takes self-mastery over your mind and thoughts. Because it was my first real time “meditating”, I was not very proficient. I can definitely see how this can be used as a tool for pain relief, especially for those who are good at meditating. I don’t think that this alone could relieve pain, but it would definitely help manage low pain if we can control our minds enough. Who knows? You might be able to conquer your mind enough to eradicate your pain and maybe even unlock the secrets to the placebo effect (which I will talk about in a later post).

Lutz et. al; Slagter, HA; Dunne, JD; Davidson, RJ (2008). "Attention regulation and monitoring in meditation". Trends in Cognitive Sciences 12 (4): 163–9.