- Change your brain, change your pain
- Exercise
- Sleep
- Mindfulness
- Mind Full or Mindful?
- The state of being attentive to and aware of what is taking place in the present
- Attention and Awareness
- Noisy Neighbor cartoon
- Acknowledgement is different from acceptance
- How mindfulness works to help with chronic pain
- Mindfulness training positively affects neural activity associated with
- Anticipation of pain
- Unpleasantness of pain
- Intensity of pain
- Mindfulness training positively affects neural activity associated with
- Mindfulness increases attention to the present moment. This activation of parts of the brain involved in emotions and attention helps alter ones anticipation of pain and the unpleasantness of the pain.
- Although there is mixed evidence on ability for mindfulness to alter the intensity of pain, mindfulness practice improves pain acceptance and coping in patients with chronic pain.
- Mindfulness creates space, shifting brain activity from the reactive amygdala to the thoughtful prefrontal cortex
- So what really is mindfulness…how do I do it??
- •Get somewhere comfortable
- •Set a timer (start out at 5 minutes, progress to 15-20)
- •Close your eyes
- •Focus on your breathing, follow each breath in and out
- •As thoughts enter your mind, acknowledge them, and let them go
- •Return to your breath
- Studies use a Mindfulness Program of 20 minutes a day for 8 weeks
- Don’t let pain take charge!
- As we get older, pain is a part of life.
- Let’s strive forward together to tackle pain head on with mindful movement!