You want to get started.

You’ve heard about all the amazing benefits.

But did you know that this is scientifically proven?

WTF am I talking about?

Meditation of course!

Hey, don’t roll your eyes at me. Please.

I feel calmer and more relaxed after a session of meditation.

If you’re struggling with joint pain, you must seriously consider meditation.

In this post, you’ll learn two types of meditation to control pain, how meditation decreases pain and increases pain tolerance and how to meditate.

Can Meditation help with chronic pain?

Walking meditation

This type of meditation is simply to help you develop a sense of calm and awareness of your body.

You can practice it anywhere and at any time.

Walking meditation differs from regular seated meditation because you focus on walking and this helps you to be more aware of your body.

To start, begin with walking inside about 40 paces and then turn around and walk back.

Walk anywhere from 5 minutes to 20 minutes.

Your mind will most likely wander but try your best to focus on the present.

When you lift your foot to take a step, really think and feel about the connection to the ground.

Mindfulness meditation

Studies have shown that mindfulness meditation can reduce chronic pain by 57%.

Those who have experienced meditating regularly can reduce the pain by 90%!

What’s so encouraging about this data is that you don’t need any prior meditation experience to get the benefits.

One of the goals of mindful meditation is to help you gain psychological control over your pain.

There are 2 aspects to pain, electrical signals from injury and your mind’s reaction to those signals.

Mindfulness meditation helps you to understand these types of pain and how to lower the volume on it.

This in turn, helps to control any feelings associated with anxiety or depression related to pain.

The idea here is to have these feelings start to diminish so that you can focus on relaxing and healing.

How does meditation decrease pain?

Meditation rewires your brain’s pain network

I find that if I concentrate on my knee pain throughout the day, the pain starts to feel worse.

That’s because what you focus on expands.

There was a study conducted at Wake Forest in 20ll where 18 people living with chronic pain underwent 4 days of meditation training.

Their brain activity was measured before and after the meditation with MRI imaging.

The result?

The brain pain centers of the participants were 57% less active when they finished meditating.

Meditation disconnects your emotional reaction to pain

Have you ever started to take a step to walk and before you even move, start to worry about the pain?

Why is that?

The pain at this point has become so ingrained in your psyche.

You start to feel stressed and anxious before you take that first step because you are anticipating the PAIN.

When you learn to meditate, it cuts off the emotional attachment to the pain.

Additionally, you not only focus on the present but also on how much pain you are experiencing in your body.

Meditation releases strong chemicals 

Most of us turn to medication to help relieve joint pain.

There’s a lot of debate about taking medication for joint pain relief or using a natural approach.

During meditation, feel good endorphins are released and they are an excellent natural pain killer.

Another advantage?

There’s no harmful side effects to meditation.

Does meditation increase pain tolerance?

Research suggests that only 10 minutes per day of mindfulness meditation can help with pain tolerance.

In this study, 12 men and 12 women were divided randomly into a control group and a meditation group.

Each participant put their hand into warm water for two minutes and then placed the same hand in cold water.

They left their hand in the cold water for as long as they could bare.

Then they either sat quietly for 10 minutes (control group) or meditated for 10 minutes.

Those participants that mediated for 10 minutes noticed a large decrease in anxiety towards the pain.

Additionally, they greatly increased their pain threshold and pain intolerance.

How do you meditate?

Getting started with meditation is not difficult at all.

Find a quiet comfortable area where you won’t be disturbed.

Close your eyes and try to concentrate on the present moment.

Breathe naturally.

Focus on your breath and observe how your body feels.

Sit in this way for at least 5 minutes daily.

Try to increase the amount of time you spend in meditation by adding 5 minutes each day.

Conclusion

Meditation is a wonderful technique that you can start using today to help you control your joint pain.

It has been scientifically proven to help reduce chronic pain and increase pain tolerance.

You can meditate while walking or sitting just by starting with 5 minutes each day.

I highly recommend that you give mindfulness meditation a try.

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