Here are some simple breathing techniques you can try anytime and anywhere that can have an almost instant effect on your experience of pain.
(Hint: It’s all about that relaxation response!)
Exhale when you expect pain
It is an instinctive reaction to pain – or the expectation of pain – to sharply inhale, and often then to hold the breath in.
This type of breath tends to increase our negative experience because it’s associated with our sympathetic nervous system – our ‘fight or flight’ state.
Conversely, if we can train ourselves to exhale at the moment pain arrives we can use the parasympathetic ‘rest and digest’ system and it’s ‘happy hormones’ to minimise its impact. If we can learn to use the exhale in anticipation of pain, we may be able to prevent it from spiking at all.
Lengthen your exhale
Along the same lines as the technique described above, lengthening the exhale part of your breath triggers your body’s natural relaxation response through activating the parasympathetic nervous system.
Any slowing of the breath will help your body find a more calm quality, but we can take that one stage further by making the exhale take longer than the inhale.
There are a few ways of achieving this if you find it difficult to begin with. you can try:
- exhaling through a straw, or through pursed lips, to limit the amount of air that can be expelled at any one time
- using pauses. If you can’t slow your breathing you could break it down into short sections – e.g., inhale for a count of 4, exhale for 2, pause for 2, exhale for 2. Just make sure that no air escapes during that pause!
- humming, using mantra or ujjayi (or ocean) breath. Did you ever try to fog up a window to write a message or draw a picture? The breath you used was essentially ujjayi breath. A slight contraction at the back of the throat, restricting the flow of breath and making a sound like the ocean (or Darth Vader! These techniques have other benefits in pain management due to the activation of the vagus nerve. Search “vagus nerve” in the blog section for more information.
Mindful awareness and visualisation
When pain comes, try to quiet your mind and calm your breath rather than tensing up. ok, so this one’s not so simple! It’s an easy concept but one that can take a lot of practice to actually perfect. I promise you though, it’s worth the effort.
Breathe into the area of the pain and observe the sensations with as much detachment as you can manage. If you can bring your other senses into this exercise you can greatly increase the potential benefits. For example:
- ‘see’ the breath enter and leave your body
- ‘feel’ the warm breath surround the area of pain
- imagine the area of the pain as a spiky ball and ‘see’ the breath smooth it out, or
- ‘see’ the pain as a block of blue ice and the warm red breath gradually melting it away
With practice you may be able to substantially diminish a pain cycle, or even prevent potential spasms. A word of caution however, try not to have too much expectation when you try this, as the tension caused by unfilfilled expectations could outweigh the benefits achieved.