- Source: Forbes.com
Researchers from Yale, Columbia, and Dartmouth have recently published a paper in the journal Social, Cognitive, and Affective Neuroscience outlining the benefits of mindfulness in reducing pain, thus quantifying wisdom long understood by yogis, gurus, and monks for centuries. What is interesting about the study is that the benefits of mindfulness extend to both physical and emotional pain and even a superficial introduction to mindfulness practices has proven to help participant with pain management.
Mindfulness is defined as “a mental state achieved by focusing one's awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one's feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations, used as a therapeutic technique.”
“The ability to stay in the moment when experiencing pain or negative emotions suggests there may be clinical benefits to mindfulness practice in chronic conditions as well — even without long meditation practice,” said Hedy Kober, associate professor of psychiatry and psychology and corresponding author of the paper.
After being introduced to only 20-minutes of mindfulness concepts participants were tested in two contexts while undergoing brain imaging scans — one for assessing response to physical pain induced by applying high heat to the forearm and another for gauging their response when presented with negative images. In both instances, researchers found significant differences in brain signaling pathways when participants were asked to employ mindfulness techniques compared to when they were asked to respond as they normally would.
"It's as if the brain was responding to warm temperature, not very high heat," said Kober.
Participants also self reported less pain and negative emotions when employing these mindfulness techniques. Additionally, the authors were also quick to note that neurological changes did not occur in the prefrontal cortex, which regulates conscious or rational decision-making, and so were not the result of conscious willpower.
So if mindfulness is so effective at pain management, as well as reducing stress, anxiety, depression, insomnia, and high blood pressure (hypertension) (as has also been reported), what are some simple steps people can take in their daily life to incorporate mindfulness?
Here are a few ways you can easily employ mindfulness into your daily life:
Pay attention: Take a moment to stop and simply observe the world around you without judgement or action. Simply observe the colors, shapes and sensations around you.
Accept yourself: Treat yourself the way you would treat a good friend.
Focus on your breathing: Focused breathing has been found to be one of the most effective forms of pain management. Even stopping for a few moments to focus on and control your breath has been found to reduce anxiety and pain. The practice can even curb oncoming panic attacks.
Body scan meditation: This meditation practice is often used by yogis and runners to become more centered and reduce injury. Body scanning simply requires you to focus your attention on one body part at a time and observe how it feels. Start at the top of your head and work your attention down to your feet and try to relax each body part as you observe it.
Sitting meditation: There are many forms of sitting meditation, but a good intro to sitting meditation is to sit comfortably with you back straight, but not tense, and simply focus on your breathing, as well as allow your thoughts to flow in and out of your head without clinging onto them as if they were clouds floating through a blue sky.
Walking meditation: You can also incorporate this kind of meditation into your running practice (if you are a runner). The practice simply requires you to focus on the act of walking, how it feels, and how your body moves. Walking meditation often has practitioners walk back and forth in a 10-20ft space and start by counting your steps and breath and observing how you body moves.
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