How a beginner’s mind can reduce pain in your body

Persistent pain comes in many different forms. It may a have specific name, like fibromyalgia, or spondylitis. It may affect your head, or your shoulders, your pelvis, or your gut. It might be termed neurogenic, or non-specific. It may happen pretty much constantly, or come and go unpredictably.?And like as not, you have already tried lots of options to reduce it. So, you might be sceptical about a solution that targets your mind, not your body.??

Yet the links between the mind and the body in persistent pain are?clear. Anxiety, for example, often co-exists with persistent pain. Emotions and stress activate the same circuits in your brain as physical injury. And when disease and pathology have been ruled out, finding a solution to persistent pain involves looking beyond tissue damage.

Does this mean your pain is all in your head? Not at all. Pain is real, whatever the cause. Pain is a protective mechanism, and it can be activated by anything that signals danger to you. Mindfulness offers a chance for you to look at your pain with curiosity and kindness, moving up close, and understand how your habits of thinking are contributing to your pain.

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