Meditation Beads & Sickle Cell Pain Management

I purchased a strand of 108 meditation beads last summer. As you can see from the picture below, they look like a bead necklace. The bead that is raised up and attached to the tassel is a kind of marker bead. It lets you know where your rotation of the beads begins and ends. It’s not easy to see in the picture, but there is typically a tiny knot tied in between each bead. The knots are there to help make moving from one bead to the next a little bit easier.

One thing I did learn and remember in my research about how to use meditation beads is, the way you hold them is important. Drape the beads over your middle finger, and loosely hold the strand between your middle and index fingers where the first joints are below your fingernails. From what I read, there are pressure points that help the body relax.

Beginning with the first bead after the “lead bead,” use your thumb to move from one bead to the next each time you exhale. Breathe in, and as you breathe out, use your thumb to rotate one bead toward your body. Repeat that process. Move one bead at a time with each exhale, until you complete a full circle, and begin again if necessary.

For me, using meditation beads has been of great use. This is what it does for me: 1) it distracts my focus off my pain and onto the beads; 2) when I’m in pain, it allows me to control my breathing more easily; 3) obviously, it relaxes me; and 4) it helps to clear my mind and enter a meditative state. I use this technique often. As a result, my brain has learned to associate the process of holding the beads and controlling my breathing with pain relief; as a result, it doesn’t take too long before my pain is reduced.

I take my meditation beads with me just about everywhere I go. I often wear them around my neck under my shirt so they are handy when I need them. It’s been a WOUNDERFUL tool.

You might wonder why I have so many different meditation techniques [you can click here to see my various other methods of meditation I listed in "Controlling Your Pain"]. Well, one can never have too many tools. There are days when one method works better than another. It’s also nice to have variety. When you are skilled in different pain relief methods, it gives you the power to manage your pain in just about any situation. If I don’t have my beads or singing bowl with me, I have a number of other techniques I can use that don’t require any kind of physical object.

For anybody who has chronic pain, I highly encourage you explore as many meditation methods as you can. Some will work for you better than others. Also, the more techniques you learn, the more power you have to control your pain.