Mindfulness of Breathing and Chronic Pain

Chronic pain, once started, gains fuel from the pain-fear cycle: I experience pain; this makes me feel fearful; the fear amplifies the pain; this makes me feel more fearful… As this process becomes more and more of a default habit, the pain can become more and more chronic.

But bringing my attention to sensory input other than the unpleasant sensation of pain can break the pain-fear cycle and start to re-programme the brain. It can do this simply by giving the mind a break from continuous focus on fear and pain, giving the mind a new option for its focus, then, when this exercise is repeated this new focus can start to become a new, positive habit.

What Focus for Mindfulness Should I Use?

Exactly what this sensory input is is not so important so long as it is a pleasant or neutral one. Generally in mindfulness work dropping the idea of ‘pleasant, neutral and unpleasant’ is the practice – I inhibit these judgements and simply experience what occurs in the moment. 

If I refrain from labelling I can start a new habit of experiencing that moves away from fear to acceptance of all that is in each moment. Letting go of judgement, I can also let go of the feelings which go with these judgements, like fear, craving, dislike, frustration and grief.

How Do I Let Go of Unhelpful Feelings?

Another way of saying ‘letting go of judgement’ is: changing the nature of the lens that I see through. I can choose to look through a lens of danger, a lens of safety, a lens of fear or a lens of craving, and many more. 

When I say ‘I can choose’ I realise that the response to this is probably – ‘how?!’ In reality, how often are any of us truly able to choose what ‘lens’ we see things through?

Why is this? – I think it is because our subconscious mind has already chosen for us. So, it is at the level of the subconscious that this message to look in a different way is best directed in order to have different outcomes – a neutral or positive sensation instead of pain.

So, we need to speak directly to and convince our subconscious mind to look through a lens of safety.

A really good way of doing this is to come out of the exclusive focus on our thoughts and emotions and instead focus on the physical sensations that go with them. 

For example, at this moment I am feeling a bit of emotional pressure about getting this blog written. Now, if I focus on my body, scanning it for sensations, I find that I have a pulling sensation in my shoulders, some tingling and prickling in my upper spine and a pressure sensation in my neck. So, there are physical sensations driving my feeling of emotional pressure. 

What would happen if I focused on these sensations from an attitude of interest, as if I was lying on my back watching the clouds pass by?

Let’s watch and find out! 

As I do this exercise, the sensations become more intense and then subside. They move – the sensations in my neck and right shoulder have just moved to the junction between neck and shoulder and have become a focused pressure sensation. The sensations in my back have moved further down my back.

Isn’t it interesting how these sensations move and change?!

And now, focusing back to my feelings about this blog I wonder what I will find?…  – it seems that now I feel interested in the blog rather than having that feeling of pressure I had earlier!

How amazing that by doing this simple and short exercise I was able to change feelings which are usually decided for me by my subconscious mind!

What Can I Achieve by Watching my Physical Sensations?

By doing that exercise, I was communicating directly with my subconscious mind. I showed it that the feelings of pressure are not fixed but move and change. I showed it how it can look through a lens of safety and interest rather than a lens of danger. And by doing this I gave it practice in doing so – and each time I give it more practice at this, I increase the probability that it will start to go to this way of looking as a default setting. And then the feeling of emotional pressure will be so much less and seem so much less of a problem!

When the Feelings are Too Intense

But sometimes the emotional and physical feelings are just too intense to be able to talk effectively to our subconscious in this way. If we try, all we do is get lost in the intensity and we can just end up reactivating the pain/fear cycle.

At times like these we can gently direct the subconscious mind to a lens of neutrality or safety by focusing on a pleasant sensation somewhere in the breath.

I can ask myself: where, at this moment, am I able to feel a nice, pleasant sensation in my breath?

Right now, it is in my nostrils that I can feel a pleasant sensation of the breath.

So, by gently focusing there and enjoying the cool sensation of the air coming in and the warm sensation of it going out, I can calm my nervous system and give my subconscious mind practice at looking through a lens of safety.

Now, coming back to the physical and emotional sensations, I may find that they feel a lot less intense, and maybe I can watch them again, as I did before, as if lying in a field and watching the clouds pass by.