Meditation dulls experience of pain

Meditation dulls experience of pain

www.livescience.com

People who regularly meditate apparently find pain less unpleasant, because their brains are busy focusing on the present and so anticipate the pain less, blunting its emotional impact, a new study reveals.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Nice...


Well score one for Mindfulness... This is something.that practitioners of meditation and prayer already know. It is also my argument against the type of atheism which devalues the impact spirituality has on the subjective experience.

As the world gets more and more crazy, this practice of mindfulness will be required in order to deal with the changes....


Im glad that more stories like this are coming out

www.livescience.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Nice, but I'd like to protest the use of the word "dull". Being a teacher of Meditation I know how to dissolve some pains, including headaches, toothaches etc. with Meditation, and it is not so much that the pain is dulled but instead that mental resistance is released. Physically, this relaxes the tense area but energetically (yes I believe in that energy we're not allowed to talk about in Science) more than that happens - pain-energy is neutralized.

I challenge anyone to try the following out next time they feel pain: Instead of wanting to get rid of it, fully embrace it, suck it in, enjoy it. Keep doing that until the pain dissolves.

[edit on 10-6-2010 by Skyfloating]

reply to post by Skyfloating


Just sat through 5 hours of tattooing nonstop and find what you said to be true. I have a fairly high pain threshold anyway, but when I focus on trying to figure out where the needles are on my arm it seems to make it WAY less painful. Actually mentioned it to the artist and he said that people who look away and pretend to be somewhere else generally have a much harder time. Interesting stuff this.

reply to post by Raustin


Tattooing for hours is one sure way to confirm it

Its true - you try to look away, try to get away, it gets worse. You confront, face, suck in, breathe in, embrace...it gets better.

Hello HunkaHunka!

Nice post and testament to the benefits and necessity of meditation! I am reminded of a book by Alan Watts, The Wisdom Of Insecurity and here is an excerpt:

"Sometimes when resistance ceases, the pain simply goes away or dwindles to an easily tolerable ache. At other times it remains, but the absence of any resistance brings about a way of feeling pain so unfamiliar as to be hard to describe. The pain is no longer problematic. I feel it, but there is no urge to get rid of it, for I have discovered that pain and the effort to be separate from it are the same thing. Wanting to get out of pain is the pain; it is not the "reaction" of an "I" distinct from pain. When you discover this, the desire to escape merges into the pain it self and vanishes." A.Watts

I have experienced this process first hand and to me it qualifies what you have brought to our attention . Mindfulness is one of our true powers in dealing with angst and reactions. Resistance to pain can sometimes fuel it's effect.

I watched an OPB special about a Doctor who dealt with terminally ill people that have given up on traditional medical practice because they were told," there is nothing you can do, except take these drugs to alleviate the pain."

This Doctor had all the patients practice meditation and one of his phrases used in dealing with pain was, once in a mediative state, become familiar with your pain, "dance with it, and embrace it," decrease your resistance and the sensation begins to subside. The relief on the patients faces subsequently was evidence of the techniques success.

Peace


[edit on 11-6-2010 by speculativeoptimist]

You can meditate and be atheist, op !

reply to post by ickylevel


Oh I agree... however, there is a particular brand of atheism/skepticism which dismisses any type of mechanism which might be spiritual in nature....

That's all I'm saying.

Good post, glad to see "Science" sites are talking about this stuff. Hopefully that will continue and more skeptical people will feel inclined to begin Meditating. I like what SkyFloating had to say also, so true, so true.

mmm...

Well this is very true as already pointed out.

I have some personal experience of this following an accident in late 2004.

To not relive that event, Rather to use an age old quotation:

Unendurable pain brings its own end with it.

Pain is always endurable: the intelligence maintains serenity by cutting itself of from the body, the mind remains undiminished.

Marcus Aurelius

Kind Regards,

Elf

There are indeed many mental exercises one can do to help alleviate pain. It may be impossible to escape pain entirely, but there are ways of combatting it.

One thing I've found of great use in combatting physical pain is to "go into the pain." When one feels physical pain, the mind's instinct is to run away from it, ignore it, block it, or otherwise avoid it. But pain is actually your body calling out for attention. If you give it some attention, some of the pain may be allivated. Face the pain, and move your mind/attention to the very "core" of it, the very place it seems most terrifying to be. Dwell there mentally for some time, and some of the pain may be dulled. I'm not saying this will work with every type or degree of pain, but I've found it useful on many occasions.

reply to post by silent thunder


Thank you for this post!

I think this is one of the better explanations I've heard...

This is one of the threads in which people get their power handed to them on a golden plate - and yet, they prefer to continue wasting their power in ranting about some perceived injustice waged by the ever anonymous "powers that be", not even getting this one beyond first-page.

[edit on 11-6-2010 by Skyfloating]

Originally posted by Skyfloating
This is one of the threads in which people get their power handed to them on a golden plate - and yet, they prefer to continue wasting their power in ranting about some perceived injustice waged by the ever anonymous "powers that be", not even getting this one beyond first-page.

I'm guessing most people don't like to think about physical pain until they have to.

Unfortunately, we all have to at some point or another...some more than others.