Emotional Coaching to Aid Chronic Pain and Disease

 

Pain is a convoluted and complicated emotional and sensory experience that varies from one person to another or even in an individual depending on his state of mind or on the context of pain. Chronic pain is a health problem of our modern world which is making millions of people debilitated with conditions like backache, headache or arthritis. Popping medicines 4-5 times a day with no long-lasting effect has made people fall into depression and prevented them from leading a normal life. Alternative treatment for chronic pain like mind-body therapies is gaining momentum among the masses as an effective way to combat chronic pains. The way our mind perceives pain has a huge impact on the pain perception. Cognitive and emotional factors play a huge role in dealing with chronic pains.

People who are suffering from chronic pain are often told that “don’t give it too much attention, it's all in your head”, well all kinds of pains whether it’s a paper cut or fibromyalgia are unfolded in the brain right next to the parts of the brain that regulate our emotions. This natural connection between pain and emotions has paved the way for people to gain better control over their pain by manipulating their emotions. The scientific community is giving more attention to the emotional component of pain and this overlap between emotions and pain has led to a chronic pain treatment which was unknown to us before.

As we have established this fact that pain is processed in the brain, when aches from an injury or surgery prevails long after the body has healed itself, the shift from short-term pain to long term pain happens. Emotions play a huge role in how we deal with pain but it will only help anyone suffering with chronic pain when he/she tries to acquire those skills that help control that area of the brain which can influence your suffering. Emotional coaching is a great way to aid your chronic pain especially if you have tried all the other conventional methods. In this article I will let you in on ways by which you can manage your chronic pain by emotional coaching.

What is Chronic Pain?

Any pain that lasts for more than 6 months after the body heals from the original injury and also meddles with the person's daily normal life falls into the category of chronic pain. A person suffering through chronic pain is in constant physical and psychological pain which leads to anger, frustration and depression. There are also studies proving that chronic pain can not only be caused by a physical injury but also due to stressful and emotional issues.

How to Tackle Pain Using Emotions?

First thing first, if you’re using emotional coaching as an alternative treatment for chronic pain then you have to understand that our emotions are intricately connected to the sensory centres of our brain, so emotional state can determine our physical state.

1.      Keep the Negative Emotions at Bay

Negative emotions act as a gasoline on the fire- in this case the fire is the pain and the gasoline are the negative emotions. When you’re in a bad space emotionally, you don’t want to make any effort, don’t want to exercise, go out or do anything productive. The pain also gains momentum and you tend to feel it with more power. Furthermore, pain itself can drive negative emotions, waking up daily with excruciating pains that won’t subside makes you emotionally weak, frustrated, despair and stressful leading to a bad mood and negative emotions take over the best of you. But that the time to emotionally coach yourself and motivate yourself to rise from self-pity and do what should be done.

2.      Meditation

A chronic pain treatment that is being widely researched is meditation. It can change the way your brain perceives pain, making it more immune to pain over time. In meditation, your brain is focused on the pain rather than away from it- simply put you’re not training your brain to ignore or block the pain, in fact you’re training to endure it and work with it. There are many kinds of meditation that can work for you, choose the one that makes you the most relaxed and destressed.

Mindful meditation lets you concentrate on your thoughts while contemplating too much on them. Visualization meditation or guided imagery means that you paint a positive image in your mind while meditating. Breathwork meditation, is a meditation that allows you to do breathing exercises that change your breathing pattern and help calm you down. Body scanning meditation allows you to focus on your whole body, scrutinize each body part and relax it as you scan it.

3.      Find Comfort and support

Waking up to mind-numbing pains, bearing them all-day long and then sleeping with them can be very deteriorating for anyone’s mental, physical and emotional health, especially if you’re going through all this alone. Confine in your loved ones, seek for emotional strength and find a local community of people going through a similar situation as yours, so that you can share your experiences with them and understand the highs and lows of this problem. If you can’t find a physical group or club, search on the internet or Facebook groups for support groups.

4.      Counsel Yourself Constructively

Talking to yourself, appreciating your own efforts and acknowledging your own achievements can make you feel better and help you attain a comfort level. Instead of diving into a bottomless pool of pity, motivate yourself that you can do it, you’ll not let the pain get the best of you and tell yourself that yes, you’re in pain but you’re strong enough to deal with it.

5.      Become Occupied and Mobile

Distract yourself by doing things that you love and enjoy; this will help enhance your positive side and make you emotionally strong and happy. Don’t be aloof and isolated in your room, nurturing bad and negative thoughts, this might even increase your pain. Indulge in an activity, a hobby or pastime that makes you feel motivated, and charged. Connect with your friends and family and make an effort for them, trust me it will be so emotionally stimulating and stirring.

Takeaway

There are several different ways to alleviate chronic pain, however emotional coaching helps you to positively deal with pain and lets you endure it with better state of mind.  

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