Tuning Into Pain: How Mindfulness is Changing the Way We Cope with Chronic Pain
Quick answer: Mindfulness is "paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally" (Kabat-Zinn, 1994). For chronic pain, this increased awareness—rather than avoidance—has emerged as an alternative or supplemental treatment, with research showing lower reported pain levels and greater activation of brain regions that regulate emotion and pain.
What would happen if you placed your hand on a hot stove burner? You'd pull it away immediately. Your body has numerous defenses against pain and injury—muscle tension, the fight-or-flight response—and naturally we want to remove or distract ourselves from painful stimuli. But what happens when physical pain can't be avoided and becomes a prolonged or permanent state? That's where mindfulness is changing the way we cope.
Why doesn't avoiding chronic pain work?
Because with persistent pain, negatively evaluating the pain or wishing the sensations away is unproductive—and can actually intensify the subjective perception of pain.
Negative judgments of pain serve a purpose in acute danger: they make us vigilant and prompt us to flee. But when pain is ongoing, that same machinery backfires. People with chronic pain may also experience negative self-evaluation, feelings of guilt, or a sense of responsibility for their condition (American Psychological Association, 2015). According to the American Academy of Pain Medicine (2015), one hundred million Americans suffer from chronic pain—many seeing numerous specialists and undergoing various procedures and medication treatments, with adverse side effects, for minimal or no relief.
How can paying more attention to pain possibly help?
It sounds paradoxical, but numerous specialists believe increased awareness is precisely what helps people mitigate, cope with, and transform chronic physical pain.
Research shows that individuals with chronic pain who engage in mindfulness meditation demonstrate greater activation of brain regions that regulate emotion and pain, and report lower pain levels following mindfulness exercises. These benefits may occur with as little as 20 minutes of meditation a day over a four-day period (Zeidan et al., 2011, The Journal of Neuroscience). This is the same present-moment skill set at the core of mindfulness-based therapy.
What does Jon Kabat-Zinn's approach involve?
Kabat-Zinn's Mindfulness-Based approach to Stress and Pain Reduction—built on 30 years of work with chronic pain patients—teaches that increasing awareness of intense and painful regions of the body cultivates a new relationship with pain, and with your own mind and body.
Kabat-Zinn, creator of the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Clinic and the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, invites practitioners to notice both the regions of the body free from pain and the regions that are hurting—"just a quick toe in the water and then out" (Kabat-Zinn, 2009).
Does mindfulness make the pain go away?
No—mindfulness does not aim to make pain be a certain way; it fosters acceptance of pain as it is.
The hope is that mindfulness helps people discover new ways of being in relation to pain. Pain may be unavoidable in life, but perhaps suffering is optional to some degree. As Kabat-Zinn describes it: "It's as much play as it is work. It is a throwing yourself into the dance whether the music is something of your choosing or not, as something of an experiment, an adventure in reclaiming your life to whatever degree is possible" (2009). Because chronic pain often travels with anxiety and low mood, working with a therapist—through anxiety counseling or depression counseling—can address the emotional side of living with pain.
Tuning into pain, reclaiming your life
Where medical treatments stall, mindfulness offers a research-supported way to change your relationship with chronic pain: not by fighting the sensations, but by meeting them with purposeful, nonjudgmental attention. For many people, that shift is the difference between pain and suffering.
Getting started. If chronic pain is wearing down your mental health, mindfulness skills can help—and a therapist can teach them. Learn about mindfulness-based therapy at Austin Mindfulness Center.
Frequently asked questions
How much meditation does it take to affect chronic pain?
Research by Zeidan and colleagues (2011) found benefits—including lower reported pain levels—with as little as 20 minutes of meditation a day over a four-day period.
Isn't focusing on pain the opposite of what I should do?
It seems paradoxical, but avoidance and negative judgment can intensify the perception of persistent pain. Purposeful, nonjudgmental awareness helps transform your relationship with it.
Can mindfulness replace medical treatment for chronic pain?
Mindfulness is best viewed as an alternative or supplemental approach alongside medical care—especially where medical treatments alone have provided minimal relief. Talk with your care providers about combining approaches.
Get started with a therapist at Austin Mindfulness Center—in person in Austin or online across Texas.
