Reinforcing pain

I read the article about reinforcing pain and breaking the habits of pain. I was curious how do you not ignore the pain but becme indifferent to it? What startegies could i implement to do this? I am seeing a tms therapist and just bought the unlesrn your pain book, i have also read the mind bod prescription. Any advice would help! Thanks!

 

The key is to shift your attention to other things besides your pain---parts of your body that don't hurt; your internal emotional/psychological state; outside yourself onto other people, animals, your sense perceptions; or a pleasurable and engrossing activity.

The other key is to practice non-judgment. Try to experience the present moment, including the pain, without judging it as a negative experience--but rather looking at it as an interesting sensation.

Like anything, this takes practice, but after awhile they become new habits to replace the old one of focusing on the body and pain.

Best wishes......

 

Excellent post Ellen.

 

Face, accept, float and let time pass. These are the four steps for anxiety, but works for pain too. I think it works for pain as well because we are worried about our pain. (From Hope and Help for you Nerves by Claire Weekes.)

 

Claire Weekes and her book are fantastic.
I had a flare up of anxiety this morning because of something stupid I had done,
or rather forgot to do. I'm following Weekes' advice... face, accept, float, and let time pass.
It's working. And I told my Inner Bully I know I'm not perfect, so let up on me.
I'm not stupid, just not quite perfect.

 

I was getting my sh-- in a knot this afternoon as well. All my self talk didn't seem to be getting me very far. When I realized I wasn't dying, then I started laughing at myself. I can have such fatalistic thinking sometimes. Anyway, I was thinking of your post (didn't you post something about laughing at yourself today?) when I started laughing. We should add to Claire Weeke's 4 steps, we should add the fifth and final step, laughing.