 There is an interesting study found at The National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) called the “Effectiveness of mindfulness meditation on pain and quality of life of patients with chronic low back pain”, which concludes that mindfulness based stress reduction (MBSR) is effective for chronic low back pain (LBP).
How does mindfulness meditation help chronic low pain? It lessens the tension, which releases the tight muscles, and allows for proper nerve innervation, and blood flow to the low back. Once the tension is relieved the body will do what it is intended to do - effectively oxygenate tissues, deliver nutrients, and remove waste products from all the body. As you can remove the impediments, stress and tension, your body will come into balance, which is the the state it is always seeking. See the study below. PEACE...
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Maybe you have a "old" injury that continues to bother you long after it should have healed? That is sequelae, a condition that stays with you after a previous disease or injury.  In the 2015 study below, researchers conclude that stress modulates the perception of pain, which results in either stress-induced pain or hyper sensitivity to pain. The state of our mind dictates the way we perceive our bodies overall status. The impression of 'stress' for the individual is subjective, so a situation that may be stressful to one person will have no effect on another. We absolutely have control over our reaction to the events in our lives, and we should make good use of it to manage our pain, and direct the quality of our mental state. - PEACE  Pain, what is it, exactly?
Pain is a feeling we experience from an early age, and it is the most common symptom of disease. Pain is a mechanism that protects us by alerting us to bodily harm. Outside of the sensory nervous system function itself, pain can be an emotional feeling that is subjective to each individual. The mind has it's own psychological interpretation of the experience of each pain episode. In my own pain story I was unaware of my emotions during these pain events, and did not understand that they were integral to my syndrome. My emotional lack of awareness caused me decades of pain and suffering. The day that I truly understood that my mind; negative emotions; and the tension they produced were the cause of my pain - EVERYTHING changed. Within weeks I had taken control of my emotions; tension, and the result was a near miraculous healing. Decades of medical treatment brought me no closer to a cure than if I had never gone to a doctor at all. I literally gained no insight whatsoever to the cause of, or cure for my pain in all of those years. The Healthcare Providers I visited all those years were sincere in trying to help me, but sadly they were completely ineffective in providing a cure. In my situation, pain was a simple lack of oxygen in my muscles caused by tension. The muscles were tight, blood flow was reduced, oxygen was reduced, and pain resulted. When those muscles were starved of oxygen chronically, they eventually failed. That all sounds very serious medically, but the truth is, as soon as the blood flow is restored the muscles quickly return to normal. The body is always healing, always ready to heal, and it will heal as soon as we remove encumbrances to our health. If you are in pain, don't give up, and keep seeking methods to overcome your body's distress. Pain is a message, keep listening, and try new approaches until you are healed.  A. B. Frost - Published in Harper's Magazine 372, vol. 62 As I've traveled along this pain 'journey' I have gained some perspective about people who experience pain. I see certain patterns emerge, and it is quite simple to see these 'archetypes of agony' repeating over and over in the population. Spend a little time doing some people watching, and you will start to spot them too.
This is a short list of the types of people with pain that I've come to I recognize:
STRESS, of course! The stress may be coming from an external source, family, friends or society, or it may be internally driven. Regardless of the source, it is our perception of the stress that causes the ensuing muscular rigidity, and triggers our Tension-Based pain. As our tension persists; the muscle blood supply is continually decreased; the diminished supply of oxygen will cause muscles to spasm, and eventually fail. Do you see yourself or someone you care about in this list? If so, what can be done?
***Peace to you all***  Today I'd like to share my tribute to Dr. John Sarno, who although the two of us never met or spoke, was instrumental in curing my intense, chronic low-back pain.
His ground-breaking ideas have brought healing to thousands of people, and undoubtedly could bring pain relief to millions more who suffer throughout the world. The individuals who have benefited from Dr. Sarno's books, and therapy come from many different walks of life, but they all have one thing in common; they are open minded enough to try a new way of thinking. Sadly, we lost Dr. Sarno this past June at the age of 93. I truly wish I could have met him, but this small thank you will have to do for me. If you have a story of healing from Dr. Sarno's life work, please share it on the site. You'll find a link on my TRIBUTE page at thankyoudrsarno.org/, as well as other information about Dr. Sarno, and a link to a new documentary film: All the Rage (Saved by Sarno).  Responsibility: It’s not exactly a fun word, but then it all depends on how we chose to think about it. If we view it as a 'punishment', then yes, we probably do want to avoid it. It is a STICK for us.  If we see our responsibility as more of a ‘reward’ to help us resolve a problem we are trying to fix. It is a CARROT for us.  Here is a common, real world example: Approximately, 610,000 Americans die from heart disease each year—that's 1 in every 4 deaths.1 Often, heart disease is caused by eating a diet that makes us sick; destroys the vascular system; brings us misery; costs us billions as a society; and takes our lives too early. So, how do we view our responsibility in regard to this issue? If we close our eyes to it, we are seeing this responsibility as a STICK. If we choose to alter our diet, and change our health, we are seeing this responsibility as a CARROT. Responsibility extends to Tension-Based Pain as well. There may be many different factors that bring us tension, contracted muscles, lack of blood flow to those muscles, muscle spasms, and pain. Some of these stressors may include the following:
We can continue to look away from our responsibility in regard to stress, tension and pain, but it will most likely catch up with us, cause suffering, and potentially stop us from living the lives we want. Whether we choose to take action or not, the responsibility is actually still with us. Hopefully, we will choose the right path, and find our way to positive, enjoyable, and rewarding lives… Peace to you all, whatever your choices may be… 1 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
https://www.cdc.gov/heartdisease/facts.htm There is a phrase that I’ve been hearing, and thinking about a bit lately: Maintenance Drugs or Maintenance Medications). What does that mean exactly, and how does that concept apply to other spheres of life? Following is a definition for Maintenance Drugs: “Medications prescribed for chronic, long-term conditions that are taken on a recurring basis. Some conditions that may require maintenance drugs are: high cholesterol, diabetes, or high blood pressure. The use of these drugs has been normalized to the population by the drug industry through unrelenting advertising on television, in doctor’s offices, and on the internet. Many believe these drugs are an unavoidable part of every day life, and growing older. Health Care Professionals are often quick to prescribe these drugs, and make little attempt to get patients to make serious, required lifestyle changes in order to avoid taking these ‘drugs for life’. Generally, people with high cholesterol EAT TOO MUCH FAT; people with diabetes EAT TOO MUCH SUGAR/CARBS/FAT; and people with high blood pressure are often SEDENTARY, OVERWEIGHT, AND OVER STRESSED. There are people who are predisposed to these illnesses, and therefore they must take these medications to stay alive, but the majority of these lifestyle illnesses are self-inflicted. That may sound harsh to some, but it is true. These drugs suppress our body’s response to our unhealthy choices, and maintain our ability to be fat, sick, depressed, and stressed until the next major medical crisis occurs. It is 'bandaid' medicine with no thought of curing the under lying causes. Prescription drugs can also be used to mask unhealthy mental conditions such as stress, depression, anxiety, and other untreated psychological conditions. These drugs suppress the way we are, and the way we really feel, so that we may continue to ‘kick the can’ down the road. Prescribed drugs are not the only things we use to mask our problems, and unhealthy behaviors. Illegal drugs, or misused pharmaceutical drugs, as well as alcohol are other devices we use to cover up our feeling, and problems, which allows us to avoid dealing with them, NOW. Ask yourself, what are the things that you are *maintaining* right now? * Maintaining Illness * Maintaining Pain * Maintaining Stress * Maintaining Fear * Maintaining Paralysis * Maintaining Sadness Maybe you are taking a lot of prescribed medications, maybe you are taking pills you shouldn’t be taking, or drinking a lot of alcohol to help you cope with the problems in your life. So, you find you are able to MAINTAIN for a while longer; perhaps a decade, a year, or maybe just another month until your body, and mind can no longer compensate. There is no way to know for sure. As you look at your maintenance existence; maybe you realize that you can do better; that you deserve to live better; that you were put on this Earth for something better, or you want something more for yourself. The wonderful thing about our bodies is that they are always in healing mode, and always ready to return to health, if we take care of them. Everything can begin to change for the better tomorrow, today, or this very hour - it is as ever, your choice… ***PEACE***
Perhaps you wake-up in the morning, and as soon as you are conscious, you're finding that you already feel as if the day has gotten over on you before it has even begun. You've got problems, not just one problem, but several problems that seem overwhelmingly oppressive. There are family issues, a disagreement with a neighbor or friend, some difficulties at work, and health or financial worries to contend with each day. How can you ever feel satisfied with life while all of these troubles are constantly pushing their way into your consciousness? HOW INDEED?  There is a way - De-Miserate Yourself. Follow the steps below to begin to de-miserate your life.
Let Your De-Miseration Begin!  Allodynia translates from Ancient Greek to “Other Pain”.
This type of pain is sometimes associated with fibromyalgia, neuropathy, postherpetic neuralgia, and migraines. The excerpt below describes a new treatment for migraines that treats the cause as tension. Except from ‘The TBP Newsletter - September 2016 Issue’ INVISIBLE DIAGNOSIS I’ve been thinking a lot about the cause of pain, and the way in which sufferers often never receive a true explanation of it. There may be an unspoken verification of that cause, which I refer to as an invisible diagnosis. The invisible diagnosis is known to the doctor, but never stated clearly to the patient. If you’ve ever asked to see your medical files, you quickly find out that they don’t want you read what they have written about you and your health. In many cases tension is the cause of the pain, but most patients will never hear this from their doctors. The patients will be offered a series of physical treatments for ailments that may be mostly somatic in nature. These treatments may alleviate the pain for a little while as blood circulation increases, but it most likely never resolve the true cause of the pain. Some of us know that there are treatments, and therapies to reverse and overcome Tension-Based Pain, like TMR (Total Muscular Relaxation), and the management negative emotions. It is sad that there are many therapies to manage, even cure Tension- Based Pain, but patients are more likely to find a needle in the proverbial haystack than be offered such a recommendations from their doctors. I’ve been intrigued at the recent increase in the medical application of BOTOX (BOTULINUM TOXIN) for a myriad of tension based conditions. What Botox does when it is injected into the body is block signals from the nerves to the muscles. Essentially, the BOTOX breaks the circuit, so that the injected muscle can no longer contract. This serotype interferes with neural transmission by blocking the release of the organic chemical acetylcholine, which is the main neurotransmitter at the neuromuscular junction (where the muscle meets the nerve). This therapeutic action causes muscle paralysis, which will cause the injected muscles to relax and soften. Stop and think about that. We are so unwilling to get to the crux of our issues that we would prefer to paralyze parts of our bodies with poisons rather than examine the cause of our tension. BOTOX is offered in several medical uses, such as certain eye disorders, crossed eyes (strabismus), uncontrolled blinking (blepharospasm), muscle stiffness/spasms or movement disorders (such as cervical dystonia, torticollis), overactive bladder, severe underarm sweating, as well as for cosmetic purposes; such as on forehead lines, crow's feet, and frown lines. BOTOX may cause life threatening side effects that include problems with swallowing, speaking, or breathing. This is due to weakening of the associated muscles, and these effects can be severe, and may result in loss of life. Some swallowing problems may last for several months, and are caused by the unintended spread of toxin in the body. The botulinum toxin may affect areas away from the target sites, and may result in symptoms that include: loss of strength and all-over muscle weakness, double vision, blurred vision and drooping eyelids, hoarseness or change or loss of voice, trouble saying words clearly, loss of bladder control, trouble breathing, and trouble swallowing. These side effects are described on the WebMD website (http://wb.md/2cLITgE). This BOTOX treatment requires a series of injections made directly into the head and neck to prevent headaches in adults with chronic migraines. So, there it is; the cause of migraines is Tension-Based Pain. If migraine headaches were not tension based; the treatment would not alleviate the pain. Now we know that migraines are caused by simple tension, that begs the question, ‘Why do we spend tens of millions of dollars each year to solve the ‘mystery’ of migraine headaches when clearly we already know the cause?’ The medical community is aware that migraine headaches are caused by tension, and the physical muscle contraction, which is a reaction to stress. They are treating the body’s reaction to tension, but is this revealed to the patients? It is sad to me that many medical issues could be more simply treated with relaxation techniques, as well as effective management of stress, and negative emotions, but for many health care providers the first choice is often expensive therapies that are short-lived, and may result in severe complications or even death. Do you have an invisible diagnosis for your pain? Before accepting any potentially dangerous therapy, please make sure you understand the pathophysiology of your pain. Be sure to exhaust all of the simplest methods and therapies first to help you reduce your risk.  Sometimes life just sucks... We wake up in the morning, we have aches or pains, we go through our day, and the pain can get worse, sometimes much worse. We might do something as benign as reaching down to pick up something off the floor, and find ourselves in excruciating pain. With all the things we have to manage each day, family, work, community, and home responsibilities; pain can seem like the very last thing we have time for, but it can not be denied. If we can stop for a minute, and do an honest inventory of ourselves at the moment, what is it that we notices about our bodies? Most likely we will detect that our bodies are not at peace. We may have:
So, what is causing all of these tight, clenched muscles in our bodies?  [Tension Pain Flow] The tension, and pain is generated from inside of us. Our own reaction to the stressors in our life cause the tension that reduces the blood flow to certain muscles, such as our low-back, legs, neck or shoulders. That muscle contraction robs the muscles of oxygen, which brings us pain. When this Tension Pain Flow continues for some time it becomes chronic, and that will lead to muscle failure when there is not enough oxygen for the muscles to operate properly.
So what to do? This is a two-fold problem which can be resolved.
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BLOGAuthorAfter trying every conventional therapy for crippling, chronic low-back pain, I discovered the problem was completely within my control. I experienced an amazing health transformation in a matter of weeks. Mind-Body medicine worked for me, and it can for can too! Archives
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