Mindbody Techniques

[Pompal 09.]

I'm curious if anyone here has personal experience using a mental technique to relieve physical pain or symptoms?

 

[Pompal 09.]

I'm not sure if this is the kind of answer you're looking for, but after I had major surgery that involved drilling through my skull and ear canal, I was in a great deal of pain - like the worst earache you can immagine x 10. The only thing besides drugs that would help me was praying the rosary. Aside from the spiritual comfort it brought, it also gave me a rhythm (by repitition of the prayers) and distraction (meditation on the suffering of Christ and other Mysteries). So I guess that would be a mind/body/spirit thing .

 

[ourdukie]

Hi. I didn’t have anything specific in mind. I’m interested in all mindbody experiences, and yours definitely qualifies. Thanks for sharing!

Until recently, I always approached physical pain/discomfort from a physical perspective (treated with massage, chiropractic, ice/heat, yoga/stretching, exercise/strengthening, etc.) And those techniques have always helped….until this year. I started getting strange symptoms that were immune to all the above forms of treatment (sore wrists & a swollen knee – neither of which was the result of injury). My husband recommended a book called the Mindbody Prescription by John E. Sarno, MD. He read it a few years ago when he had plantar fasciatis that wouldn’t go away, no matter what he tried. After reading the book, his pain disappeared and never returned. So, this year, I read the book. I don’t agree with everything the author says: it’s both radical and Freudian, but it had some ideas that intrigued me. One was the idea that the mind can create pain where there is no problem. Another was the idea that a physical problem does not have to result in pain. They’ve done research studies on people who feel great – no pain at all in their bodies, yet when they do MRI’s on them, they find herniated discs, meniscus tears, severe arthritis, etc. So the question arises, why do some people with physical problems have pain and others don’t? Dr. Sarno believes it’s all in the mind. His technique’s pretty simple. You just tell your mind you know that it’s making up the pain and tell it to stop. This technique didn’t help my knee, but it did make my wrist pain go away. (Which was a huge relief, since as a massage therapist, I obviously can’t have wrist pain & still work.)

So, that’s been my experience, and I’m curious about other people’s experience with mindbody connections.

Does anyone else out there have a story to share?

 

[mandiimo aka: amanda]

I waffle with how I feel about the mind body connection.
While I have first hand experiences with it working(I'll "splain in a sec)...I have also gotten pissed off at one MT who told me my herniated disc and subsequent pain only hurt because I willed it to......
Basically...will it away and poof, I'll no longer have pain...
UH huh.

B U T ....both I and my daughter have IBS...sometimes food related sometimes stress. When I was young and before it had a name I would be rocking on the "throne" and concentrate on the tiles of the floor...the patterns of the wallpaper etc.....the intentional distraction did get me through the pain. My daughter did and still does this to this day.
Sometimes I have tried guided imagery...although I still leap off on a tangent then my mind doesn't stop whirring around.
I do something slightly different but connected in a way. I "fake it till you make it" with public speaking. I am P A I N F U L L Y shy...always have been...but I can't let that stop me. I serve as a surgical preceptor for new hires and sometimes have to lecture...oh boy...but I do it...and no one is the wiser..or so I have been told.
Do I think there is a connection...definitely....I just haven't totally tapped into it yet.

Robyn

 

[Pompal 09.]

I have also gotten pissed off at one MT who told me my herniated disc and subsequent pain only hurt because I willed it to......
Basically...will it away and poof, I'll no longer have pain...
UH huh.

That's actually one of the things I don't like about Dr. Sarno's book. He believes that all pain & discomfort is psychogenic. I don't agree, but when the physical methods of treatment aren't working, the mindbody connection is definitely something to try and tap!

 

[Trevor]

speaking of tapping,
Try the dynamind technique http://www.alohainternational.org/html/dmteng.html
sort of a simpler EFT
works for me

 

[Lisa V]

Jeffh, thanks for the link! I'm going to try that technique for my knee. (Why not? I've tried everything else. )

 

[Serious Answers Only]

I waffle with how I feel about the mind body connection.

Read Candace Pert's work and you won't waffle. Her book is "Molecules of Emotion."