Can meditation cure back pain? Those suffering from this condition desire relief delivered in any way possible, but it may seem too good to be true to believe you can use meditation to address physical pain.
In fact, studies have shown meditation can be an effective treatment for lower back pain. Developing the focus and ability to move your mind off the pain and onto something more soothing can decrease your discomfort. Plus, you may reduce the incidence of accompanying conditions such as anxiety and stress.
How Meditation Works
Meditation is the practice of observing your thoughts and feelings from a distance, without judging them. Often associated with practicing mindfulness, meditation encourages an honest assessment of your perspective as a means of understanding where your mind is at any particular moment.
Practicing helps you stay in the present moment, becoming fully engaged in whatever you are doing. You free your mind and let it bob around wherever it wants to go.
Common Forms of Meditation
Learning how to meditate takes practice. You can try a number of different methods of meditation, including:
- Guided: Download an app and let it walk you through the steps of reaching into your consciousness.
- With a teacher: An instructor can offer tricks to tapping into your mindfulness and developing greater discipline in your meditation.
- For specific issues: You can practice meditation for sleep, anger, anxiety, pain and more.
No matter what type of meditation format you choose, consistency is the most important aspect of your practice. By making a commitment and performing it regularly, you will receive the greatest return.
Benefits of Meditation for Back Pain
Are you interested in trying meditation for back pain relief? You can get started on your own, and you may enjoy benefits such as:
- Soothing patterns in the brain: Meditation can change the structure of the brain through altering behavior. The pain you feel often will become less intense.
- Reducing pain in select segments of the back: By focusing on the pain you feel in each part of your back, you become more aware of how this pain arises, which can decrease your suffering.
- Offering new ways to handle pain: Often your actual pain does not decrease, but you can learn how to manage it more effectively.
- Accompanying conditions get better: Stress, anxiety, and depression caused by chronic pain can compound your back problems. Meditation can alleviate these issues.
- Helping other stressors disappear: Meditation has been linked to improved memory, decreased exhaustion, better physical conditioning and more. These issues can compound lower back pain.
What to Try Before or After Meditation for Back Pain Relief
If you’ve already tried meditation and it hasn’t entirely relieved your symptoms — or if you’d like to try other strategies first — consider speaking with a medical professional about the following steps to relieve your chronic back pain:
- Second Opinion: If you have yet to see a professional, or if you’ve been working with one but it hasn’t helped, try seeking advice from a reputable group you can trust like International Spine Institute. We’ll help you understand your options and treatment possibilities to overcome chronic pain.
- MRI: An MRI will allow us or the medical professionals you’re working with to better view your back and determine what’s causing your chronic pain, potentially coming up with more effective solutions moving forward.
- Physical Therapy: A physical therapist can help you strengthen your back muscles and improve both posture and spine mobility for a reduction in pain.
- Injections: As an alternative to invasive surgery, stem cell injections can be used to treat low back pain by using your body’s own stem cells.
Contact International Spine Institute for Back Pain Relief
Chronic back pain can frustrate you and get in the way of everyday tasks. If you need professional help addressing your back pain, get in touch with the International Spine Institute. We offer more education about solutions such as surgery, and we also provide less-invasive surgery with less damage to surrounding tissue. We are the only practice in Baton Rouge that allows you to upload your MRI online for a second opinion. Contact us today by filling out our online form.
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