Become AWARE of Pain
by Bruce N. Eimer, Ph.D., ABPP
Life is short, and it's up to you to make it sweet.
-Sadie Delany
 All
of us who have chronic pain in a major way know that it tends to change our
personality. Over time, the continued struggle with pain tends to zap your
energy and strength. Life is harder and more stressful when persistent pain is a
central part of it. The hurt of days spent in pain adds up and collects its toll
by persistently eroding your resilience and hardiness. This is the reality of
the chronic pain experience.
For many of us, at times it feels as if managing pain is a fulltime job. The
relentless interference of pain can lead to remarkable levels of distress and
disability in one's social and occupational functioning. Unfortunately, these
changes also affect one's outlook on life and one's personality functioning.
Such is the reality of the chronic pain experience.
Fortunately, now there are things you can do to cope better and improve your
quality of life.
Acceptance and Change.
To accept means to concede to, agree to, tolerate, endure, allow, receive, or
even welcome and embrace as opposed to reject, refuse, renounce, or deny. To
change means to alter, modify, convert, transform, correct, shift, or vary.
Coping with chronic pain effectively, which means as comfortably as possible,
necessitates finding a functional balance between these two opposite forces.
The roadmap or outline I shall provide is called AWARE. To be aware need not
mean being obsessed or preoccupied with negatives. Healthy awareness is a
necessary precondition to changing something. You need to know (become aware of)
what needs to be changed in order to develop a strategy for changing it. So goes
the old adage, "If you don't know where you want to go, how are you going
to get there?"
Awareness also goes along with the idea of acceptance. It's clear to me that
when you have chronic pain due to a permanent physical injury, impairment, or
disease, the best philosophical course to follow is one of acceptance. You need
not like that you have it, but if you don't accept it and accept yourself even
though you have it, how can you take constructive action? Constructive action
and effective coping depend on acknowledging what is, even if you don't like it.
However, if you can find a way to embrace and love your pain adversary at an
appropriate level, you will find that it's easier to cope with it and be happy.
Either way, you need to accept and love yourself.
Gerald Jampolsky, M.D., a psychiatrist and originator of an approach to
self-healing called "attitudinal healing", has coined the phrase that
"love is letting go of fear". I think that this is definitely true
when it comes to coping with chronic pain. Equipped with self-hypnosis tools,
you are more capable of letting go of the paralyzing fear that can make pain
worse and of having a healthier relationship with your pain.
Please understand that awareness, acceptance, and loving do not mean not
changing. On the contrary, rejecting and refusing to acknowledge and accept
reality, or denial, is what can block you from initiating and continuing the
process of genuine and healthy change.
Linehan (1993) has wisely pointed out that the key to effective therapy for
facilitating change with regard to chronic problems is balancing actively
striving for change (a traditionally Western European and American philosophy
and approach) and inwardly searching for acceptance (a traditionally Eastern and
Asian philosophy). So ...
AWARE Self-Suggestions
The acronym "AWARE" stands for Accept the pain, Watch your
experience, Act functionally, Remove yourself from pain, and Expect the best.
The AWARE self-suggestions are:
I Accept the Pain
1. I understand the puzzle of pain.
2. I no longer need to continue to fight all the time.
3. The pain is becoming less important.
4. I compare my qualities and behaviors only to those of myself.
5. I forgive myself and no longer need to keep punishing myself.
I Watch the Pattern of the Pain
1. I notice what's working in my life.
2. I evaluate my pain, my life, and my coping strategies.
3. I notice where, when, and how I feel comfortable.
4. I use self-hypnosis to solve my inner conflicts about my pain.
5. "Hurt" does not necessarily mean "harm".
6. I separate "necessary" from "unnecessary" pain.
I Act Functionally despite Having Pain
1. I optimize the control I have in managing my discomfort.
2. I motivate myself by doing things I am interested in and enjoy.
3. I evaluate my priorities and schedule my time.
4. I use pain coping skills.
5. I direct my own behavior and take charge.
6. I direct myself to experience pleasure.
7. I interrupt dysfunctional feelings, thoughts, and behaviors.
8. I balance accepting and watching my experience with distancing or
dissociating myself from unnecessary pain.
9. I identify with positive role models.
10. I increase my rest time without feeling guilty if I get a flare-up.
11. I negotiate support from others and ask for help when I need it.
I Remove Myself from Unnecessary Pain
1. I do my self-relaxation and self-hypnosis regularly.
2. I avoid stressful situations and don't let myself become too stressed.
3. I distract myself from discomfort.
4. I employ my attention flexibly.
5. I use my most engaging and absorbing sensory memory systems.
6. I regularly make deposits in and withdrawals from my positive memory bank.
7. I control unnecessary pain by distorting and transforming it.
8. When it's appropriate, I disconnect and detach myself from unnecessary
pain.
9. I direct unnecessary pain to go away.
I Expect the Best
1. I am open to choices and opportunities for improving the quality of my
life.
2. I remain optimistic, flexible, and open to change.
3. I build motivation by finding good reasons to change.
4. I reframe dysfunctional beliefs.
5. I dispute negative, irrational, and dysfunctional thoughts.
6. I help myself into a positive frame of mind with self-hypnosis.
7. I use positive self-suggestion and coping self-statements.
All of these self-suggestions are part of your new "hypnotize yourself
out of pain now" program. They can be employed in the waking state and
before entering self-hypnosis to continue the process of positive self-change on
an unconscious level. When you employ these self-suggestions in the waking
state, they serve as positive affirmations and help you direct your own behavior
and experience.
This
article is excerpted from:
 Hypnotize Yourself Out of Pain Now
by
Bruce N. Eimer.
Reprinted with permission of the publisher, New Harbinger
Publications, Inc., Oakland, California. ©2002. www.newharbinger.com
Info/Order
this book.
About the Author
Bruce
N. Eimer, Ph.D., ABPP, is a clinical psychologist in Philadelphia with more than
seventeen years of experience treating people with chronic pain using
cognitive-behavioral and hypnosis strategies. Dr. Eimer is a Board Certified
Diplomate of the American Board of Professional Psychology in the specialty of
Behavioral Psychology and is certified by the American Society of Clinical
Hypnosis as an Approved Consultant in Clinical Hypnosis. He also holds board
certifications in pain management, medical psychotherapy, and vocational
neuropsychology. He is a member of the Society for Psychological Hypnosis of the
American Psychological Association and the Society for Clinical and Experimental
Hypnosis. Dr. Eimer is a chronic pain survivor and has used self-hypnosis
techniques to manage his pain.
| Comments () >> |
 |
 |
