Mindfulness

[Mike364]

I have not written for here some time but I have had PMR for about 12 years. When I retired 10 years ago I was under a lot of stress and attended a mindfulness based stress reduction course for 8 weeks. This changed my life! (for the better!). More recently I have been looking at Mindfulness again but specifically for chronic pain as an old spinal fusion is getting very painful and I can't walk further than about 50 yards. This with PMR is not easy. My endocrinologist says I must expect to stay on prednisolone for the rest of my life.

I have discovered a mindfulness teacher/writer called Vidyamala Burch who has managed to help me in a matter of weeks to lose a lot of my pain. I wondered if anyone lese has had this wonderful 'acceptance' experience. I can recommend books but I don't know if I am allowed to here. Sometimes is seems that on this forum it seems rather negative. I am not saying mindfulness will 'cure' us all but from my experience it has been 'life saving'.

I would love to hear from others about their experiences with mindfulness.

[winfong]

Not much experience, but I am curious. What were the books?

[Mike364 in reply to winfong]

2 Books have really helped me with chronic pain but there are many others.

Mindfulness for Health - Vidyamala Burch & Danny Penman

Living Well with Pain and Illness - Vidyamala Burch

[fmkkm in reply to winfong]

Also, the classic “Full Catastrophe Living” by Jon Kabat-Zinn.A friend just sent me a link for free MBSR training on line through palousemindfulness.com.

[piglette]

There is no reason why you should not mention books you feel others would find interesting. It is if you were trying to sell them to us and making money out of it when it would be a bit iffy!

[SheffieldJane]

Lovely post Mike. It has made me want to revisit Mindfullness that helped me during my working years.

[Mike364 in reply to SheffieldJane]

Thank you - just sowing seeds!

[PMRpro Ambassador]

Good to hear from you Mike!

It's OK providing it is something presented as "this helped me" but blatant advertising isn't allowed.

[Sophiestree]

If I'm right, this is the lady who looked into what could help her after a really bad spinal accident and was on a large amount of painkillers.

If you go onto FutureLearn you will find some free courses on Mindfulness where you can download short mp3 files to listen to. 1'30 quick ones and then I think 5', 8' and 20 minutes. Not necessarily about pain but about refocusing.

I'm not very patient with meditation but can manage a short one.

[Sophiestree in reply to Sophiestree]

I also find some of the insipid voices annoying from the off and these guys (from Australia) are ok

[Mike364 in reply to Sophiestree]

Thanks for that. I will give them a try.

[Karendeena]

Hi Mike 364, I read your post with interest. Having been fit and well all my life I developed afib in 2020, followed by polymyalgia in 2021. I was put on steroids and then my problems began, I had GI problems, ended up having a CT colonoscopy where all they found was a 1mm kidney stone , so I now have IBS and I am still tapering the steroids. The reason I am giving you the background is that as a result of all this I developed health anxiety and decided to try mindfulness. I bought a couple of books and downloaded the app insight timer. I used the guided mindfulness sessions when I go to bed ( they relax me so much I seldom get to the end before I'm asleep and as I wake up with anxiety I usually take another session. I think you need to persevere to gain the benefits but I have found mindfulness a real help

[Mike364 in reply to Karendeena]

Hi KarendeenaThank you so much for that. It's great to hear that mindfulness is helping you. But as Vidyamala says - it won't cure us but will help not only with secondary pain but also primary pain. There are many on this forum who really do suffer. I have not written very much over the last few years as I felt many were just sharing their pain and grouches. This is not a bad thing to do but can leave you rather depressed. I hoped by bringing up Mindfulness others could perhaps gain a glimmer of sunshine in the future.

Jon Kabat Zin is also a good writer but he does tend to use a lot of words sometimes! Well worth reading him if you can.

My daughter in law has Lupus and I mentioned mindfulness to her. She said that her mind could never settle to meditate. But that is the whole point. We are not trying to gain a 'state of ecstasy'. Our minds are made to bounce around. Everyone could benefit. It is not religious. I am not pain free but Mindfulness helps me.