Chronic Pain

While chronic may be the result of a injury or illness, in some cases there is no clear source. Whatever the cause, the experience of long-term pain is an arduous one - and it is something that both creates and is worsened by stress.

Stress is an acute aggravator of pain, affecting how we process the pain response. 

Chronic intermittent stress affects the source, transmission and interpretation of pain, and as a result, intensifies the sensation and in many cases causes it too.

Whenever we get stressed or have programmed a degree of stressful alertness into our system, the amygdala becomes over-activated and starts releasing all sorts of neurotransmitters that are responsible for the sensation of anxiety. 

This anxiety then bleeds into a hypersensitivity to all potential threats and maladies, and the brain starts interpreting everything as being more dangerous than it probably is, and thus, we have stress-induced hyperalgesia (sensitivity to pain).

Luckily, this is something that meditation can help with.

When we use meditation for chronic pain, the amygdala and the nervous system are brought back into a more healthy state of balance. 

This allows us to stop interpreting our pain in such a negative way, and the result is, we feel an awful lot more comfortable, both physically and emotionally.

The deep rest gained from Beeja meditation means our systems are less strained and are able to function more naturally, which means immune system starts responding more correctly, and the cellular repair function is no longer inhibited. The result is effective alternative pain relief.

The production of naturally occurring opioids reaches more optimum levels, the receptors get cleaned out so that they can fully receive this welcome release, and we are thus able to take advantage of a far more sustainable and superior way of self-medicating.

Our naturally occurring opioids are three times more effective than morphine at diminishing the sense of pain, and unlike the external medicinal substitutes, they don’t come with side effects that compromise our ability to function.

In addition, meditation will also offset any cognitive impairment that may arise in tandem with chronic pain sensations by bringing greater functioning to all aspects of the brain, including short-term memory, long-term memory and learning functions.

Gentle exercise can be very effective in reducing chronic pain, but unfortunately being in pain can make the idea of moving at all highly unattractive. 

Meditation can bring you to the point of comfort which allows you to embrace other self-help techniques, and make your experience of pain far more manageable.