I recently learned of a quick technique for pain relief which intrigued me. This is something that can be used for physical as well as emotional pain - and it may be interesting to note the connection between the two. Have you ever noticed how much more sensitive you can become to physical pain when you are feeling emotionally fragile or distressed?
Or what about distracting yourself from pain by watching a movie only to find at the end of the movie the pain is there again? Where did the pain go during the movie, then? Maybe it was being usurped by a more pleasurable stimulus (the movie) or your attention was simply focussed elsewhere. It seems like a clever trick the brain can perform, which we could utilise.
It is important to note that physical pain is a warning sign to the body. It is vital then that appropriate medical advice is sought before using any natural pain reduction methods. If, however, it is medically safe to partially or totally reduce the pain then you may want to try this out for yourself.
Before you begin, give the emotional or physical pain a rating on a scale of 0 - 10, where 0 is no pain and 10 is extreme. Jot down the number.
1. Focus your awareness on the physical/ emotional pain and imagine it as a shape.
2. Now draw an ‘outline’ around the shape in your mind.
3. Once the outline is established, expand the outline so that you allow more space around the pain/shape. Give it lots of room.
Now re-rate the pain from 0 - 10.
4. Imagine now a ‘mini-you’ located between the eyebrows looking down on the shape with all the space around it.
Rate it again, where is it on the scale from 0 - 10?
5. Now imagine another ‘mini-you’ floating above you looking down through the eyes of the ‘mini-you’ located between the eyebrows looking down on the shape with all the space around it.
Rate it again.
It is quite a phenomenal process, although very simple. I used it in a simple yoga stretch to test it out and it worked beautifully.
I’d love to hear what your experience of this is, so if you try it, please leave a comment.
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