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Mindfulness

2022-02-06

Mindfulness has been in the public domain for a number of years now; it is a practice that has been adopted in schools to assist students with exam nerves and pressure, as a form of self help to reduce anxiety, to assist in the reduction of chronic pain, mindful eating for weight management has now also been thrown in to the mix.

But what is mindfulness and where does it originate from?

Mindfulness is a loose term associated with many meditation practices.

Mindfulness can be described as a constant awareness of yourself within the present moment acknowledging your emotions, thoughts and bodily sensations without judgment. What!  I hear you say, Sounds like air being pulled from the sky, a hippy dippy theory for new age tree huggers.

You may well think so, but, it is a highly recognized practice that has been in existence for hundreds of years.

Well, Mindfulness has been practiced by a variety of secular religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism and within yoga. In fact,Many Hindu deities are commonly pictured performing meditation, such as the Hindu god Shiva.

Based on Zen and Tibetan meditation techniques, Buddhist masters adopted mindfulness to enhance their meditation practices as a means to reach their ultimate goal to reach –Nirvana

( a state where the desires and sufferings of an individual simply go away.)

So how can this assist us to live with chronic pain?

Well, in a number of ways, Research shows that chronic pain is associated with negative emotions and depression. Among people with chronic pain, it is observed that there are low levels of glutamate in the body, (a chemical that nerve cells use to send signals to other cells) and this impairs the ability to process positive emotions

Mindfulness can be useful in that it is a way to focus on the present rather than focusing on the pain. This is a very simplistic explanation of mindfulness, why not look in to it and give it a try.

I am in no way suggesting that you discard your pain relief medication, but used in conjunction could have a more positive effect on you, your mindset, and aide in the management of your pain.

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