On monday I promised a tweetie that I would write a post about the meditation techniques that I use for relaxing and taking a little control over my pain. They're more about visualisation than they are what most people think of when they think about meditation.
Please note, the great thing about these techniques is that you don't need to do that 'clear your mind' stuff that so many people struggle with (I mean really, the more you try to clear your mind the harder it actually gets).
Most of us try find things to take our mind off the pain we feel rather than embracing and focusing in on it. That can be helpful for getting you through the day (I do it myself). However, sometimes it can actually help to focus on it, to 'own' it, if you will. So this first technique is a very simple visualisation for helping with taking control of pain (it can help you relax in spite of the pain and even if it doesn't reduce the pain it can give the feeling that you can 'handle' it better).
The great thing is, you can do it anywhere (standing, sitting or lying down), but it helps if it's quiet but when turning your vision inwards like this it can be easy to block out the background noise).
1. Close your eyes
2. Focus on slow steady breathing (but not something you need to worry about too much)
3. Focus on the point of pain (eg if your finger hurts focus on that) or if the pain is a larger area focus on the wider area.
4. Visualise you pain (assign it visual representation) - what you visualise it can vary depending on you, for me it's usually a grey blob, for you it might be a pink fuzzy ball.
5. Slowly move the blob/ball from it's original location. So, going back to the pain in the finger, you imagine the representation travelling through your hand, up your arm, past your elbow, through your shoulder and up your neck. There might be times you lose track of it and need to go back and start again, this is no big deal. You may or may not actually feel the pain following the path you're visualising; I do, it's how I know I've got it working right, if I don't feel it then I start it again, but again, it can work differently for you.
6. Your target is to work the pain through your body and out through the top of your head. Visualise the pain flowing out of the head (sometimes I imagine it like smoke escaping, other times it's a little more 'solid' in my imagination. You might feel a little light-headed as you do this part, for me I get a pulling sensation around my sinuses.
7. You might want/need to run through it a couple of times for the same pain point.
This second technique is all about relaxing, if you're in enough pain for it to be distracting then it might be best to go through the first technique before moving on to this one. I wouldn't advise trying this one when standing, and while you can do it anywhere it's designed for when you're inside rather than outside (no reason why you can't adapt it if you need). What I have found is important about this one is that you don't get snapped out of it suddenly after point 6 as it can leave you feeling a little jarred. So if you're not going to have time to go through it then maybe simply go to 6 and then go back through it in reverse to the starting point.
1. Sit or lie down.
2. Close your eyes.
3. Focus on your breathing, on the feel of your chest rising, visualising your diaphragm moving & the air moving in and out of your lungs. Slow, steady breaths, but not too deep.
4. Focus on your body, on your toes (go ahead and slowly wiggle them if you want), feet, hands, fingers, and the point where your body meets the surface you're lying or sat on.
5. As you focus on those parts of your body imagine them growing heavier, visualise pressing down into the bed or onto the seat. Heavier and heavier.
6. Then, imagine yourself getting slowly lighter... and lighter. Visualise yourself losing contact with the mattress/chair as you feel so light you start to float upwards.
7. Visualise yourself slowly floating up towards the ceiling.
8. As you near the ceiling imagine the ceiling slowly opening up above you and you float upwards through it (it varies here depending if you just have the one ceiling between you and the sky), repeat as many times as you need until you're opening the ceiling to the sky.
9. Visualise the sun on your face, the heat of it warming you through as you float upwards over your house/office building.
[9a. Visualise the night sky, the twinkling stars and the enchanting moon ~~which ever version works for you]
10. You can go as high as you like, above the clouds if you want (and depending on how you feel about heights you can look down on where you started from) and you can stay up there, feeling as light as ever, floating above everything.
11. When you're ready to come back down, visualise yourself slowly returning down, until the ceiling closes over you, until you feel the mattress/chair gently rest against your back. (don't go so far as to press down on them).
12. Slowly start to move your toes and fingers, then your feet and hands. Let yourself feel back in your body.
13. Become aware of your breathing once again.
14. Slowly open your eyes when you're ready.
Hope this is some use to someone at least :)
Nate