Changing Relationship To Pain

[Guest guest]

Moderator's note:

Jon Zabat-Zinn is not a medical doctor, he has a PH.D in molecular biology from

MIT.

I have been working with a therapist in changing my way of viewing and

tolerating pain. I know from lots of research that our thoughts change the

nervous system and that can increase the pain as well as other complications.

Pema Chodron says we need to learn to carry the pain differently.

Dr. Jon Kabat Zinn is famous for setting up one of the most successful pain

clinics in almost every major hospital in the USA. His basic program is one of

changing the relation ship to the pain.

I am really new to this and would love to communicate with anyone who is doing

this work. Please feel free to email me.

Rik

[Guest guest]

For anyone interested; I took a Dr. Kabat-Zinn " Mindfulness Based Stress

Reduction " (MBSR) course through my local hospital.

It started me on this new way of looking and relating to my pain. I am learning

that fear and over concern has made me worse. The great thing was that Medicare

paid for the week long course.

Here is a bit more about Dr. Zinn - he also has several books and tapes in the

event you don't live near a hospital that has his programs.

http://www.mindfulnesscds.com/author.html

http://www.mindfullivingprograms.com/whatMBSR.php

Rik

[Guest guest]

I also want to recommend the work by Dr. Wise with Stanford Medical

School. He has a pain clinic there and has written a book: Paradoxical

Relaxation that is wonderful.

He shares techniques to relax the body and do meditation while in pain. So far

it is helping me sleep, as I always wake up around 2:00 a.m. and can't get back

to sleep.

I just read the book and am using the techniques and they are helping. It is

hard to change the mind set of recoiling to the suffering, so I am not at all

proficient but I had hit the end of the road with other pain management so I had

to try something else. So far I am so glad I did, but as I said I am really new

to this.