How to Relieve Symptoms of Chronic Pain with Yoga and Meditation?
All the benefits of yoga and meditation are very well established and confirmed. Researchers keep finding more reasons why you should embrace meditation and yoga.
Recently a study from Orgon studied how yoga can help patients who have chronic pain. Researchers showed that all you need is a few months of regular yoga practice in combination with meditation. Consider having a yoga vacation or try attending a wellness retreat, it will not only help you with chronic pain but can also help you relieve anxiety and stress from the city.
How Yoga Can Help Patients with Chronic Pain?
Maybe you are sitting all day at work and you feel that lower and upper back pain. On top of that, your neck hurts and you have a terrible headache at the end of the day. If you don’t do anything about it, you will wake up all stiff the next day and maybe eventually develop chronic pain if you don’t take care of yourself in time.
Recently the study published in the Journal of the American Osteopathic Association found that a course of mindfulness-based stress reduction can help patients who have chronic pain.
How to Relieve Symptoms of Chronic Pain with Yoga and Meditation
Detailed instruction on how to meditate in combination with hatha yoga over the course of eight weeks considerably helped people with chronic pain. They also learned how to increase their awareness in the present moment.
The study was conducted in a rural area where often affordable care is a problem, making simple and low-cost of meditation and yoga a great pain management support.
Additionally, researches found that people’s perception of their condition changed when they reported feeling less pain, and not being depressed and anxious anymore. It’s important to remember that chronic pain often goes together with depression.
Cynthia Marske, DO, director of graduate medical education at the Community Health Clinics of Benton and Linn County and the osteopathic physician said:
“Mindfulness-based meditation and yoga can help restore both a patient’s mental and physical health and can be effective alone or in combination with other treatments such as therapy and medication.”
Can Yoga Give You Chronic Pain Relief?
Yoga and meditation are both helpful in relieving chronic pain and depression that follow and relate to pain. The benefits of yoga are very well researched especially when it comes to our overall mental health.
Cynthia Marske said:
“Many people have lost hope because, in most cases, chronic pain will never fully resolve,” says Marske, “However, mindful yoga and meditation can help improve the structure and function of the body, which supports the process of healing.”
It’s important to remember that curing and healing are two different things. Yoga and mediation help you deal with chronic pain but that’s not the cure. As Marske explained:
“Curing means eliminating disease, while healing refers to becoming more whole. With chronic pain, healing involves learning to live with a level of pain this is manageable. For this, yoga and meditation can be very beneficial.”
Nothing can replace a regular visit to a doctor. Yoga and mediation are not a cure for both chronic pain and depression. If you feel like you are suffering (physically and emotionally) the first thing you should do is visit your doctor to make sure you are on the right track. Don’t hesitate to discuss the health benefits of yoga and meditation with your doctor so you can see how you can incorporate both in your healing process.
What are the Benefits of Yoga?
The benefits of yoga are countless. Yoga can improve your flexibility, help you build muscle strength, help you with your posture, protect your spine and overall bone health, prevent joint and cartilage breakdown, increase blood flow, boost immunity, drop blood pressure and blood sugar, regulate your adrenal glands and prevents IBS and other digestive problems. Furthermore, the impact on your mental health is significant. Yoga can help you focus better, help you find a healthy lifestyle, maintain your nervous system, help you sleep better, increase your self-esteem, and gives you peace of mind.
Both yoga and meditation will encourage self-care in your life. In conventional medicine, patients are only passive recipients of care. While with yoga, what you do matters. Yoga and mediation can give you the tools you need to change and start feeling better. Some feel better after the first practice. With yoga and meditation, you are fully involved in taking care of yourself.
