How many times do you let the pain from a bad back ruin your day? Or how often do you spend a day complaining because your crooked sleeping style gave you a bad neck?
Well, science has proven that the more you dwell on it the worse the pain gets, suggesting that your mental approach to pain counts for a lot of why it feels so bad.
According to the Daily Mail, scientists at the University of Reading used thermal probes to inflict pain from overheating on participants forearms. This generated pain that was similar to experiencing a burn.
Half of the patients were trained to control negative thoughts related to the pain whereas the other half were given training completely unrelated to the pain sensation and management.
The study analysed the two patient groups’ response to pain (hyperalgesia) and found a huge contrast between the two groups. The group with pain management training received a 38% reduction in secondary hyperalgesia while the control group reported an increase of 8%.
This proves that thinking positively and the “mind over matter” concepts are both hugely relevant and beneficial to managing pain.
To help your own pain management you can practice positive-thinking techniques on your own. Some things that you can do to relieve pain include:
It won’t take away the source of the pain and probably want alleviate it completely but it will help you to manage your pain and stop it from controlling your life.
How do you manage pain at the moment? What difficulties do you have? What helps to control it? Tell us in the comments below…