In the early months of 2009, I started practicing daily meditation. The results have been both surprising and rewarding. Typically when I awake in the morning, I’m in a great amount of discomfort and taking my pain medications is the first . . . well, second thing I do. However, by meditating before taking my painkillers—whether it’s in the morning or throughout my day—I have found I’m often able to go anywhere between five and eighteen hours in between doses as opposed to every four hours. There are, of course, days when meditation isn’t as affective and I still need to take my medications every four hours. However, regardless of how severe my discomfort may be any given day, daily meditation has significantly increased my ability to manage my pain and decreased the number of painkillers I take in a month.
I typically meditate three times a day and always do so before I take pain medication. I begin my fifteen to twenty-minute meditation sessions by sitting in a comfortable chair. I put a pillow behind my head so I am able to completely relaxed. I start by taking several deep breaths in and out. While concentrating on breathing at a slow even rate, I relax all the muscles in my body; this includes releasing the tension in my eyebrows, jaw, facial muscles and shoulders. I try to completely empty my mind of thoughts by focusing entirely on my breathing. Other times I may focus on the rhythm of my heart. I quiet myself to the point of being able to feel my heartbeat in my chest, arms, legs, hands, feet, fingers and toes.
Sometimes I use various visualization exercises similar to what I described in the techniques above. Often I repeat the following phrase in my head, “My mind is calm. My body is relaxed. I am completely relaxed.” I stay in that meditative state until I am thoroughly relaxed and all the pain I felt when I first began my session is either completely removed or significantly reduced. This usually takes ten to twenty minutes to accomplish. I end the session by counting to three and think to myself, “You are wide awake, fully alert and free of discomfort.” I come out of the session feeling refreshed and I’m usually pain free—sometimes for only a few minutes, other times it lasts hours.
To show how effective meditation can be, I’ll share an experience I recently had. One morning I awoke with a terrible knot in the kidney area of my lower back. The muscles were so tense it was like having a tennis ball stuck in my back. It was very uncomfortable and lasted for a day. The next morning the knot was still there. So I decided to try something in my morning meditation session.
I sat in my chair and went through all the relaxation excises I’ve described. With my eyes closed, I envisioned my back in as much as detail as possible. Then, like a computer-generated image, I removed the skin from my back one layer at a time until I could see all the muscles—sounds gross, I know. I then focused on that spot in my back and pictured a tense knotted muscle mass.
Next I visualized a warm clothing iron being pressed down on that area of my back. In my mind I ironed over the knot again and again. Each time I went over the knot, I saw the muscles relax and the knot become a little bit smaller. I spent a great of amount of time repeating that visual exercise. When I was done meditating, the pain in my back and the knot were gone entirely. I didn’t have any problems with it after that. To me, this was an amazing example of how powerful the mind can be.
Since around 2010 I’ve been seeing a neuropsychologist. He’s been guiding me in the practice of meditation. I feel as though I’ve just begun a journey that has been, and will yet be, very fruitful. In addition to the pain relief I’ve been receiving from daily meditation, my overall sense of wellbeing has improved. I find I am generally calmer and less irritable. I encourage you to experiment with daily meditation. You may similarly find it rewarding in more ways than one.
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