Reeve Foundation Paralysis Community

Hello Doctor G,

 I am an avid listener to your program on WHYY. Yor insights and wisdom have helped me through many difficult days. Thank you very, very much. I wanted to learn about using mindful meditation for the chronic pain I have (post MVA 2006 ). I live in Wilmington, DE. Where can I go to learn the actual technique of mindful meditation as well as how to employ it.

                                                                                                                 Thanks Again,

                                                                                                                         Kirk

Dear Kirk,
I'm sorry to hear about your pain, I know how debilitating it can be.  And yes, mindfulness meditation can be quite helpful for managing pain.  In a very strange way, mindfulness doesn't change pain at all, it just changes our relationship to the pain.  I'll explain
the purpose of pain is to alert our bodies that something is very wrong and must be done right away.  So pain becomes a crisis our brain tells us to react to quickly and eliminate the source of the pain.  It's instinct.  Almost.  And it works quite well for acute pain.  Those of us who have no sensation over parts of our bodies know the dangers of not being able to feel pain.
But then there's chronic pain that really isn't giving us much information at all, but our brain/bodies still react the same way. So what we do when we feel pain is our whole body tenses our minds can think of nothing other than the pain.  And of course, all of that makes the pain much worse which makes our bodies tense more and so on.
And here is where mindfulness comes in.  The purpose of mindfulness meditation is simply to raise awareness of what is happening in our lives any given moment.  The work begins by placing attention on the breath and monitoring it in great detail, and noticing where it's felt most on the in breath or the out breath etc...  So you may wonder what does noticing my breath do for my pain.  While you are breathing, your mind will be running around like minds do.  But by bringing your attention repeatedly back to your breath, you will "learn" that what goes on in your mind is just stuff and that you can let it go.
I have pretty severe nerve pain in one of my arms, and some days it feels like I have no skin.  Years ago I took all sorts of medication and engaged in all sorts of measures to diminish that pain.  And now, and I feel that pain, I just feel it and it leaves when it's ready.  Don't get me wrong, it hurts like hell, but I'm not all that engaged with it as I know it will leave.  Not only that, but I have plenty of other things going on that very moment -- I am breathing, noticing how the rest of my body feels, noticing the temperature in the room and how it feels to be with the person I might be with moment by moment.
Pretty long answer, but I hope I've addressed your question.
I learned medication over a decade ago from Dr. Michael Baime at the Penn program for stress management.  I think that is close enough for you.  If not, you can google: "mindfulness-based stress management" and find programs all over the country.

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Dan Gottlieb Ph.D.
www.DrDanGottlieb.com
"wisdom of Sam: observations on life from an uncommon child"will be released April 2010