Healing with Food

Food can be a wonderful friend when you're dealing with chronic pain. Herbs, fruits, and vegetables contain properties that may assist you in feeling better. One of the best resources for information is The Juicing Bible by Pat Crocker. It is filled with information on: what to eat for what diseases, healing properties of various foods, and delicious recipes for teas, juices, and smoothies.

Once you decide to use food in healing, make yourself aware of side effects. I once used licorice to relieve pain. Though I followed the dosage listed on the supplement bottle, my blood pressure rose 30 points and I had to stop taking it. High blood pressure is a known side effect of licorice. Fortunately, both I and my doctor were aware of this and the cause was immediately apparent. Once I stopped the licorice, my blood pressure returned to normal. Though it was helpful in relieving pain, the side effect wasn't worth it.

That said, diet can be enormously helpful both in regulating pain and in promoting health. Know that side effects can occur with supplements and with food. Explore these options with an eye to side effects while informing your doctor of any changes. You may find that dietary changes bring unexpected relief of pain and a feeling of rejuvenation as health improves.

Finally, many pain conditions lessen as weight is lost. This is a matter best addressed with a health professional. Severe dieting has its own adverse effects and typically is not recommended. However, switching some intake to juices which preserve live enzymes can be a positive move. Consider options that allow you to improve nutrition and optimize your weight gradually.

Back Away from the Edge

Monitoring your internal state is very important when you have chronic pain. You may be able to push yourself beyond realistic limits. This can happen as you try to meet obligations, or simply live a 'normal' life. While the body keeps going, the pain is taking its toll. You may suddenly find yourself hitting a wall. Exhaustion sets in and dealing with even the simplest issue seems beyond your capabilities.

Pushing yourself to this extent may result in a physical setback. It most certainly can result in an emotional setback. Not only may you harm your relationships while in this exhausted state, you may also face the emotional fallout of realizing, once again, that you cannot do all that you wish to do, or may have been able to do in the past.

Your best strategy here is to learn to recognize the signs that pop up as you approach the edge. This strategy prevents you from going over it. While there are obvious signs once you're over the edge, there are signs as you approach it. They are usually more subtle, but with practice you can learn to recognize them. Some of the signs may be: 1) an increased pain level 2) pain in more widespread areas 3) frazzled nerves 4) fraying temper 5) increasing annoyance at things that you normally handle with skill 6) increasing frustration with others. It doesn't matter whether outside factors induce some of these signs. If we find ourselves in such a place, we need to back up whether we got there under our own steam or others contributed.

Backing away from the edge can be a simple process. Deep breathing, increased rest, slowing our pace,  pausing and thinking before we react all serve to slow us down. In slowing down we give ourselves a break. At this point, you can begin to think about how much of a break you need to ensure that you greet the day feeling refreshed and happy. Take time to do this. This approach is so much better than coming to a crashing halt. Manage your state so that you maintain your equanimity regardless of what happens around you. Acknowledge that having chronic pain requires you to pay attention. The benefit here is that the positive state you achieve will not only be good for you, but those around you as well.

Rest

Rest is so important in dealing with pain. It helps the cells heal and gives a much needed break from movement that can exacerbate pain. That said, it can be difficult to come by. Schedules can make it hard to rest. Pain can make rest difficult. Finally, other people can contribute to a lack of rest in unintended ways. Expectations of others can have an impact on our choices. Even when we make the best choice for our health, those expectations can have a dampening effect so that rest becomes, well, less restful as we cope emotionally and mentally with what others think we should be able to do.

In my experience chronic pain is most difficult to explain to those with excellent health. Though they may love you, may empathize with you, and may care that you are well, it is simply difficult for them to grasp the true impact of chronic pain. I have experienced just such people make suggestions that are beyond my capabilities. For instance, once while job hunting I received a suggestion that I go to a job fair. This particular fair was set up in such a way that I would have been standing for at least three hours. On a great day I could stand for maybe half an hour. Three hours? Not possible.

I've also experienced input ranging from subtle to direct that can be summarized by the question, "What are you doing?" Well, when I'm resting, it does not appear that I am doing anything. In fact, I am trying to heal, or at least rejuvenate to the point that I can manage the things I'm physically capable of doing. But it doesn't look like being busy.

For your own sake, it is important to understand this dynamic. You will be a happier person if you understand that others might not understand. If they don't, it may not be productive to try and explain, especially if explaining would be perceived as excusing your behavior. In such cases, breathe deeply and do what is best for yourself. With a solid internal understanding that rest is necessary for your health and a vital part of your practice, proceed to rest with peace in your heart.

Meditation

People may tell you that meditation will help with chronic pain. That's true. It will. However, to reach the skill of a meditation master may take many years. And while your ability to alleviate pain through meditation will increase each time, what about right now? There is a meditation that anyone can do. It is hands down the best meditation I have ever done for pain. At times when I was in such pain that sleep seemed impossible, this meditation worked. My pain went away long enough for me to fall asleep - what a gift!

Be in as comfortable position as is possible. Think first about the fact that pain does not exist in and of itself. It is not something tangible that can be held. Rather it is lightening fast messages traveling from neuron to neuron. As the message passes from neuron to neuron, your brain says, "Pain." But, in reality, there is no "thing" that is pain, it is just a message.

Next focus on the part of you that hurts. Let's say, your elbow. Now try to find the pain. Is it the skin around your elbow, the muscle, the bone? If the bone, is it the bone itself or the marrow inside? If the marrow, which cells in the marrow? If certain cells, what part of the cells? If the energy in the cells, what part of energy? As you seek to find the pain, you may find that you cannot. In looking for it, it has disappeared.

This meditation is my gift to you this Holiday Season. May it be your lifelong friend and bring you much joy. I remain forever grateful to Sam May who taught me this meditation.

True-Blue Friends

Methods of dealing with chronic pain, by their nature, fall into categories of fast and slow. Painkillers, from aspirin to opiates, fall into the fast category. Taking them tends to have an immediate effect. And, yet, they bring with them the potential for additional problems ranging from adverse reactions to addiction.

Due to a constellation of symptoms, I find myself in the position of being unable to take any painkillers. Thus, I rely on the slow methods of dealing with chronic pain. If you are in a similar position, have heart! While the slow methods take time, they are like a true-blue friend. They will not desert you or become less effective over time. They are always there for you, caring for you, ready at your call, increasing in strength and effectiveness the more you use them.

The first step is embracing a slower path. You may already feel slowed down by your pain in ways you do not like. If you are frustrated by that, no wonder! However, this is not the slowness to which I am referring. No, embracing the slower path is embracing a way of looking at things that is gentle, peaceful, open, and, at the same time, intently alert. Instead of rushing toward a fix for your dilemma, take a step back and begin to look deeply and closely at what is. Make a practice of closely and carefully following your own self, your body and your mind. Observe in detail how your body reacts to each thing you do and what your mind says in response. You want to move and rest as comfortably as possible. Observation often helps in surprising and unexpected ways. We can be so used to pain that we think we know everything about it, only to find with close observation that our body has been sending us messages we have ignored. Even small shifts in how we move and navigate can have profound effects.

Our minds are powerful, integral elements of both our pain and our response to it. Pain after all is a message traveling through our neural system to our brain and back that is notifying us that there is an issue. Harnessing our mind and using it in our response to pain is bringing this powerful ally into our corner. As you experience pain, as you observe yourself, what are your thoughts? What momentary, incredibly fast thoughts fly through your consciousness? Are they helpful? Do you commend yourself for your bravery in the face of your pain? Or, do your thoughts worsen your pain? It's one thing to acknowledge that you have pain. It's another to become bitter or to increase your burden with negative thoughts about your pain, yourself, or the situation. Our bodies are designed to alert us to pain. This fact lies outside the arena of feeling. It simply is. 

Relax into a stance of seeing what is, with your body and your thoughts. Look at whether you are helping yourself in all aspects, or whether some aspects exist in which, inadvertently, you are not helping. Typically, it's easier to make physical shifts in how we do things than it is to make mental or emotional shifts. However, the potential of mental shifts is immensely powerful. Observe your thoughts and begin to weed out those thoughts that do not help. As much as possible take your view of pain out of the arena of emotion. See that it is a fact, not an emotion. Know that you can choose how you respond to this fact. This path is not for the faint of heart, it requires courage and bravery. How wonderful that within ourselves we have access to both.

Presence

Most of us encounter pain in one form or another throughout life. The hope is that it's temporary and manageable. Some of us encounter pain that is chronic and severe. What do you do if you find yourself in the second category? This blog is about what I have found to work and work well. It is certainly not medical advice. It is actually not advice of any sort. It is simply an opportunity to share the things that have kept me on a positive path even though one companion on that path, pain, is not of my choosing.

First things first. Get a diagnosis. What a shame to tough it out only to find later that a fix was readily available. Even worse is allowing a serious condition to get out of control because it isn't addressed. I see practitioners of both Eastern and Western medicine. Some of them have apologized to me for giving me "bad news" - their words, not mine. I always view information as helpful. I want to know where I stand even if I don't like the look of the landscape.

Once you have all the information in hand and realize that part of this includes your communing daily with pain, take a deep breath. Be present with it. The worst thing you can do is run from pain because then you have two problems, the pain and your desire to get away from it. For the time being table your desire to be pain free. That may be part of your future, or not. You will be far more productive in dealing with your pain if you are present in the moment and fully aware.

As you are present, focus on your love for the cells in your body that are in pain. Let them breathe in as much oxygen as they need. Give them the space to do this. The body is always happier when the state it is in is acknowledged. That is your first gift to your body, allowing it to be as it is.