Meditation techniques to relieve arthritis pain can deliver more relief than over the counter painkillers. In fact, recent research shows that easy to learn methods of meditation can be up to 400% more effective than morphine.
Always consult your doctor before using meditation for pain relief of any kind.
There have been clinical studies done on each of these main meditation techniques to relieve arthritis pain (and other forms of chronic pain)
- mantra meditation techniques (TM)
- mindfulness meditation techniques
- guided meditation and guided imagery techniques
Jodi Helmer, writing at the excellent Arthritis Today.org site gives these useful tips on how to to make the most of your meditation techniques to relieve arthritis pain.
Meditation Techniques To Relieve Arthritis Pain
Keep it brief: You might not have an hour a day to set aside for meditation, so take five- or 10-minute meditation breaks throughout the day.
“Aim to meditate for a total of one hour per day,” says Mark Thornton, a New York City-based meditation teacher and author of Meditation in a New York Minute: Super Calm for the Super Busy (Sounds True, Inc., 2006). “Meditating for a few minutes throughout the day to add up to one hour is just as effective as meditating for a full hour.”
Be consistent: Meditating is a lot like working out at the gym: You need to keep doing it to get results. According to Thornton, a daily practice is best. If the idea of meditating daily feels too overwhelming, aim to meditate every other day. The goal is to set a schedule that you can maintain long-term.
Try active meditation: Meditation doesn’t have to be done in a dark room while seated in the lotus position. You can meditate in the shower, standing in line at the supermarket or even washing the dishes.
To begin an active meditation, take slow, deep breaths and tune into your surroundings – feel the warmth of the dishwater as it covers your hands, watch the bubbles fill the sink, smell the fresh lemon scent of the dish detergent and hear the sound of the dishes clanking together – and continue that mindfulness throughout the meditation.
Adjust your focus. In order to reap the rewards of meditation, it’s important to follow one simple guideline for doing it right: Focus your attention. It’s meditating and not just a series of thoughts when you’re controlling your focus on something specific – a flickering candle flame, a simple mantra – and not your to-do list.
These four tips will be extremely useful to helping you use, whether you use mantra meditation techniques to relieve arthritis pain, or a mindfulness meditation to allow you to control your arthritis pain, or a guided visualization that gives your mind a vacation away from letting the pain of arthritis dominate your quality of life.
Over at my meditation techniques blog, we have many different meditation techniques to relieve arthritis pain, meditation for knee pain, meditation for stomach pain, and most any chronic pain you may suffer from.
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