Every so often someone comes into my practice with a ‘serious medical condition’ that reminds me why I came to love Eastern medicine. One issue is pain. It has myriad forms and presentations. It has real consequences and causes. It’s common thread is OUR PERCEPTION of it.

I suffered with chronic pain for many years that began, oddly enough, when I ceased regular meditative practice- a coincidence. After several years I began meditating again out of necessity and more than a decade later found a chiropractor that helped me solve the problem.

I don’t know what I would have done without that skill. My pain was such that I was significantly impaired in thought and movement on a daily basis. I was lucky. So many people with chronic pain fight it for years without significant improvement and often debilitating side effects from medications.

I have studied meditation in many forms through Qi Gong, Yoga, Transcendental, and Zen. Now, while I have studied over many years, it still only takes minutes to learn the basic concepts and see real results. By paying close attention to the breath, the rhythm of your body as it rests, the movement inside you constantly circulating and simple posture and counting exercises, you can easily learn useful stress reduction and begin to hone meditative skills.

What does it mean to meditate? To sit and be quiet? Not really. The body and mind are never really quiet. However, learning to channel that energy into something useful takes practice.

Here’s where I come in to help. I’ll help you master that skill while we put together a plan to fix or reduce the real problem. It takes a team and often I’ll recommend that you see other specialists. As you’ll see in the story posted below, meditation can be powerful, but it’s not the only thing. The main protagonist in the story witnesses grief, loss, and the failure of her safety net as she tries to regain control in her life. It is a story I have seen too many times and the main reason I try to be honest and realistic in my treatment, referrals and personal growth exercises (ie. homework) for you. You’ve got the rest of your life to master it.

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/04/treating-chronic-pain-with-meditation/284182/ ;

For questions about this and more call me at 206-669-1285.