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Ways to Break Your Chronic Pain State for Relief

Just because you have to deal with chronic pain on a regular basis, does not mean all hope is lost. There may be days when you can’t actually get rid of the pain entirely, but you can still manage it, starting with distracting yourself and breaking your state of chronic pain for relief. Here are some different ways to do just that.

Change the Focus to Another Body Part

This is one of many ways you can use your mind to focus on different parts of your body. You are trying to take your attention from the area of your body that hurts and start thinking about another area. So if you are currently having abdominal pain from
Crohn’s disease, try picturing one of your feet. Focus on your foot first and what it currently feels like. Now start altering the focus, imagining that foot is ice cold or on fire. You want to start allowing your brain to create a different sensation in an entirely different part of your body.

Try Using Imagery

Here is another way to use your brain and creativity to try and keep your mind off the area of your body that is currently causing you pain. There are a few different ways to use imagery, starting with positive imagery. In this, you want to imagine something that brings you joy, instead of something negative. Don’t think about the pain, but imagine you are pain-free and are enjoying somewhere you love, such as the cabin you go to every winter or a sandy beach in the warm sun. Another way to use imagery is by using the pain as a symbol, such as a lightbulb. Slowly you want to dim the lights, helping to imagine your pain is gradually lessening.

Count Whatever You Can Find

Counting is actually something that works for many different things, from trying to sleep to when you are having a panic attack. This same practice can also be done if you are having some bad chronic pain. All you need to do is find something near you and start counting it. This can be the tiles on the floor, the number of objects in the room, or the number of things that are a certain color. You can also start imagining certain objects in the room, counting them one by one.

Another counting exercise that works for some people is counting backwards from 100, then going back the other way.

How about lower back pain?

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