A new study indicates meditation reduces pain. They actually heated the skin of participants to 120°. I think I’ll try meditating 20 minutes a day.
See http://bigthink.com/ideafeed/in-pain-try-a-little-mindfulness.
Beth
I have made a post to ask if someone wants to try meditation with me ! I am doing this for a few days. It is not easy, but I think it is very important to try this safe thing to deal with pain.
Yes, Carine! Let’s do this together. This EM is destroying me. I wish I was never born. The burning goes up my legs now. My hands have developed Raynauds. My cheeks burn and sometimes my arms too. I itch so much.
I like to make things with my hands. Unfortunately all of my gardening and crafting destroyed the cartilage at the base of my thumbs, so I have severe osteoarthritis at the base of my thumbs now. When I grasp things it hurts so bad. I may need major surgery on my right thumb. I am terrified hand surgery will exacerbate my EM. If that happened, I don’t think I could continue.
Until this summer my favorite hobby was making handmade greeting cards and paper crafts. Because of my painful thumbs, I’ve stopped making cards, but if you would like me to send you a handmade Christmas card, tell me your address. I love bringing joy to others with my cards. I don’t know if I will be able to make cards in the future. The thought saddens me. I have spent a fortune on stuff for my hobby! My biggest fear is when I die, my husband will sell my craft supplies for what he thinks I paid for them!!! I have to laugh when I think of another saying I saw on the Internet about crafters: “Why buy it for $7 when you can make it yourself with $92 worth of craft supplies?” Truer words were never spoken!
Meditating is also very difficult for me. I am a type A personality. An overachiever, a perfectionist. My mind races and I can’t control my thoughts. But I am going to try this and concentrate on my breathing and think of cool water and beautiful landscapes. You do the same. It may take me a year to master meditation, but we have nothing to lose!
Beth
In our menu tab 'smilelin thru' there is a section with links to relaxation and mindfulness sites. I'm with you, Beth, on the personality type but I've managed to master the short 8 minute mindfulness meditation on the FranticWorld site. Also wanted to say that I have seen a similar skin heating/tolerance test done to test the beneficial effects of music, it was pretty impressive. I know I've posted about it on one of the BF's sites so I'll see if I can find the link.
Psychologist Mathieu Roy, of the University of Colorado, Boulder, who conducted the study, says these results suggest that music can prevent the transmission of pain signals from the spinal cord to the brain.