Pain can range from the mild but annoying thrum of a tension headache to the excruciating sting of a burn and can be either short-lived or chronic. Chronic pain, caused by long-term illness or disease, can be challenging to live with. Negative consequences include reduced ability to work, strained relationships with family and friends, and depression, negative moods and irritability. Whether your pain is short-lived or chronic, relaxation exercises may be able to help reduce your discomfort and help you regain a feeling of control.
Recommended Techniques
Because muscle tension is a common response to pain and stress, muscle relaxation exercises can be a first step to easing pain. One technique for relieving pain involves actively tensing your muscles, holding and then relaxing, starting with the head and working down to the feet. The resultant sense of relaxation often can help alleviate discomfort. Meditation -- a state of quiet contemplation -- can also soothe pain by reducing anxiety, lowering blood pressure and slowing metabolism, thereby increasing the body's pain threshold. Yoga, prayer and chanting a specific word or phrase all constitute forms of meditation. In biofeedback, audio and visual information is used to measure your success in making changes to your body's function by way of guided imagery; this technique can help refocus your attention on thoughts and perceptions other than those linked to pain. Hypnosis can also be effective in altering your perception of pain.
Deep Breathing
Deep breathing exercises can help reduce the pain of fibromyalgia -- a condition in which nerves overreact to pain signals -- as well as other painful disorders. Deep breathing can relax muscles, lower blood pressure, decrease heart rate and bring more oxygen into the body. Perhaps most importantly, deep breathing can turn on the relaxation response of the parasympathetic nervous system -- the opposite of the "fight or flight" response that triggers both stress and discomfort. To perform deep breathing, sit upright in a comfortable chair with your eyes closed and take a deep breath through your nose. Hold the breath for five seconds, then slowly release it. Repeat 8 to 10 times.
Visualization
Visualization involves imagining vivid scenarios in which your pain is effortlessly neutralized. You might imagine a page with your worries written across it, followed by the image of a giant eraser effortlessly removing them and wiping the page clean. An alternate technique is to imagine your problems and pain inside a helium balloon that you are holding, then imagining letting the balloon float away and watching as it gets smaller and disappears into the distance. You also can concentrate on your breath coming in and going out, imagining that with each inhalation you are breathing in comfort and relaxation and expelling worry and discomfort.
Sacred Space
Although not technically an exercise, the concept of a relaxing getaway is useful in chronic pain. It may be helpful to create a "sacred space" in your home that is completely yours, and furnish it with items such as scented candles, stones inscribed with inspiring affirmations, worry stones, prized photographs, miniature fountains or fresh flowers. Spending time there can calm you and make it easier to deal with pain.
