No Pain - All Gain! Train the Brain to Remove Pain

During meditation and yogic breathing techniques, brain wave patterns change.

Scientists from The University of Manchester have found that people who meditate regularly find pain less unpleasant because their brains anticipate the pain less. The study was published in September 2010 and showed that meditation reduces the emotional impact of aches and injury.

In the study, pain was administered via a small laser and the threat of pain was also anticipated as part of the research.

The scientists found that the prefrontal cortex, the region of the brain known to be involved in controlling attention and thought processes when potential threats are perceived, was more active compared to non-meditators. The experienced meditators also perceived the pain as less unpleasant relative to controls.

The more experience that a meditation practitioner had, the more the individual was able to distance themselves from anticipation of soreness, both reducing the expectation of and the negative appraisal of pain.

Meditation trains the brain to be more present-focused and to spend less time anticipating future negative events, reducing the recurrence of depression which makes chronic pain considerably worse.

Other studies have demonstrated that the pre-frontal cortex thickens as a result of meditation and thickening of this area of cortex is also shown to protect a person from sensitivity to pain.


Meditation Reduces Pain

During meditation and yogic breathing techniques, brain wave patterns change from beta waves to alpha waves. In addition, both hemispheres of the brain and the body become balanced. In most people, one side is slightly more active than the other e.g. being left or right-handed, but balanced sides also mean that your creative, physical, and logical abilities are equal and productive.

During the alpha state, the brain produces endorphins, natural pain-reducing hormones that are also responsible for a feeling of wellbeing and calming awareness throughout the body. Endorphins are the “feel good” factor involved in maintaining a positive quality of life, aid in controlling the body’s response to stress and in the regulation of growth and gonadotropin hormones.

When the mind is balanced, the whole body is affected.

Multi-Sensory Meditation which we teach, via classes and seminars, positively impacts your internal and external perception, your awareness of possibilities, and by promoting an optimistic mental state enables you to be free from negativity. In its simplest form, it is your own way of distancing your mind from the hustle and bustle of everyday living. You give yourself permission to relinquish the thoughts, demands, and pressures coming at you from the outside as well as from within, releasing attachment to the familiar path you traveled on before and experiencing the peace of the moment.

Guided Meditation
See previous postings on the website on the basic method of How to Meditate

Train The Brain To Remove Pain
Begin by following the breath from the tip of the nose into the base of the lungs and follow the breath out again.
Notice the body
Begin at the base of the body at the right side
See the right foot then the left
Move slowly over each area of the body, without becoming attached or associated with any particular area
Notice how each part of the body feels
Notice what you sense, smell, touch, hear, see, experience

How does your body feel with your surroundings; do you feel supported by the earth, does your body and heart feel open or closed
Travel with conscious awareness from the feet to the crown of the head
Begin to release awareness of your body, one limb and area at a time
Recognize that you are not your body
As you release awareness of having a body, you release awareness of areas that have pain as well as areas that are pain-free
With practice you learn to disassociate your Self from the confines of the body




Affirmation
Thoughts have their own unique energy. Use the power of your words to create only that which is positive for you.

See yourself as strong and healthy. See healing energy passing into you. See yourself doing all the things that you are now physically able to do. You move lightly, filled with vitality and the knowledge that all is well.

I am filling each cell with light and creating a new body