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| Photo by William Marsh |
This is the first of a weekly series, Pain Management Tips. It will feature short, practical (as opposed to theoretical) posts with a single pain management tip or exercise.
Breathing. We all do it, and that makes it, as I have said before, quite a handy tool in the pain management kit. But the flip side is this: we all do it, and that makes it easy to forget or discount. So when applied to pain management, the key to breathing is focused consciousness.
Breathing exercises done correctly are calming and relaxing. They're the mainstay of my pain management repertoire. For example:
Breathe in gently through your nose, then out as though blowing through a straw. The out breath should take longer than the in breath.
- As you breathe in, Imagine the breath filling you -- tips of toes, feet and ankles, legs, pelvis, abdomen and back, shoulders, neck and head to top of scalp.
- As you breathe out, imagine the breath taking with it from your body all tenseness of muscle and sinew, and ache of bone in a slow and relaxing whoosh.
- Do this ten times.
I welcome your comments below, or you can email me at carold.marsh@gmail.com. Thank you.
I've heard that yoga can be something that relieves your pain, but I never knew that breathing was something that could also alleviate pain. I would love to be able to try and put this technique into practice. There has been a lot of pain that has been happening in my lower back and being able to breath it out sounds like an excellent option. Thank you for taking the time to share this with us. http://illinoispain.com/pain-symptoms/
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