Aggravation

I am amazed how much being aggravated can cause my pain to increase more than I can express in worlds. Something happen tonight, nothing really big and really pretty stupid but upsetting nonetheless, and I was amazed how much my pain increased. I know that this happens because I have been taught that stress increases my pain, but it was weird to feel it happen. I went from around a level 6 in pain to about a level 9 in a matter on about 20 minutes. It is just so amazing.

During this time I had to use my Diaphragmatic Breathing and it really got the pain back under control. Also a breathing technique called Heart Focus Breathing where you are focusing on bringing your heart rate down helps to calm you down. Studies have shown that these techniques really do work and boy do I have to tell you that they work wonders for me. You focus on something that is non-tangible and let yourself be taken there. Make it something that calms you down, like watching the sunset on the beach. You don't want it to be a husband/wife, or pet, or anything like this because if something bad has happened then you will not have positive feelings to help calm you down. And then while you are focusing on that you do the diaphragmatic breathing. It is just amazing.

I was able to get my pain back down to a level 8. I know that doesn't seem like much but it is quite a bit and it is much more manageable. Again, unless you live in chronic pain you can not truly understand how much just this small amount can help you continue on for the day. All of these different techniques that I speak about are things that I have learned over the 10 week pain management program at my local Kaiser. It has been wonderful, but only about 25 to 30% of what was taught was of high value to me. I will continue to talk about the different things that really continue to help me.