Meditation and pain management

Guest article: One moment at a time, by Vidyamala

I am a forty-five-year-old woman who suffered a spinal injury thirty years ago that has resulted in a legacy of on-going physical pain. Of course this has been difficult to live with, but some twenty years ago I had a significant experience that radically changed my perspective on life and plunged me into the wonder of living in ‘the present moment’.

I was in an intensive care ward at the time, with an acute deterioration of my condition. I had been bedridden for several months and unable to sit up, but on this occasion I had undergone a diagnostic procedure that required me to sit up for several hours afterwards. During this long night of intense pain I felt myself sliding towards the edge of madness.

I spent hours with two internal voices locked in combat – one voice convinced I could not stay sane till morning and the other willing me to do so. It was an incredibly intense, brittle, heart-breaking experience.

Then, suddenly, my experience completely changed when I heard a quiet inner voice saying: “You don’t have to get through till morning; you only have to get through the present moment”. It was like a house of cards collapsing, revealing the space that had been present all along, if only I could have recognised it. My experience immediately changed from an agonised, contracted state to one that was soft and rich – despite the physical pain. At that moment of relaxing into the present moment, just as it was, I intuitively knew I had tasted something true.

I later found a way of making sense of this experience through the teachings of Buddhism and have spent the past 20 years training my heart and mind, using meditation and mindfulness. I was ordained into the Western Buddhist Order in 1995 and for several years I have taught meditation and mindfulness practice to others who live with pain and illness.

Below are some tips and pointers drawn from the methods I have developed that you mind find helpful if you are living with discomfort or pain. Please explore these as you wish, alongside any other treatments or therapies you may be receiving. Mindfulness practice can ‘complement’ conventional medicine in a helpful way.

About Vidyamala

Vidyamala is a co-founder and director of Breathworks, a company offering ‘mindfulness-based strategies for living well’.

She runs courses in Manchester UK for people suffering from chronic pain and illness, teaching them how to optimize quality of life using meditation and other mindfulness-based strategies. She also is involved in running a training program for those wishing to deliver the Breathworks programme in other localities.

She suffered a spinal injury in 1976 and has used meditation and mindfulness to manage her own chronic pain for many years.

Vidyamala’s CDs of guided meditations — developed as part of her Breathworks pain management program — are available for sale in our online store.

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  • Three skills useful in managing pain
  • Guided meditation transcript
  • Being here: A Buddhist approach to pain
  • Dying to live: talk by Vidyamala

    • View Comments

    • hello mam.
      i am from india. iam 25 yrs. i hve been suffering from neck pain from last 4yrs. my pain is too worse that i cant even tolerate. its unresistable sometimes. i cannot walk for a long. now i am trying meditation for the last 1 month. but i am not getting what is the best method to do this mediatation.

    • Dear vinay
      I am very sorry t hear about your pain problem which sounds very difficult. Have you got access to pain medication? This can be very helpful alongside meditation techniques. In terms of meditation: the problem many of us have when in pain is tensing against it which just makes the pain worse. This is almost always accompanied by holding the breath in some way which again just adds to tension. So I would suggest doing meditations which encourage relaxation and relaxing the breath. In particular the 'body scan' available here: https://breathworks-mindfulness.org.uk/shop/breathworks-guided-meditation-cds-and-downloads.html
      Good luck! In a few months we will have an online course ready which you may also find helpful, aimed especially at people seeking to manage pain and illness using meditation and mindfulness. If you keep an eye on http://www.breathworks-mindfulness.co.uk then you'll know when it is ready.
      Very best wishes to you vidyamala

    • Vidyamala is from New Zealand, Vinay. She has a Sanskrit name because she is a member of the Triratna Buddhist Order.

    • I have suffered all-encompassing pain in my lower back & legs from degenerative ostioarthritis for about 15 years. I have lost my husband of 30 years - he didn't want to have to take care of someone who would eventually be a "cripple". I have lost my career/vocation of teaching. . . . I have lost my independence - I'just moved in with my daughter &her young family - I thank God every day for their invitation! I have been a devoted fundamental Christian for many year - long before the advent of "The Pain". I feel all of those beliefs slipping away now. I would like to explore the possibility that meditation would help me live more comfortably with my pain but hesitate as Budhism is pretty much diametrically oppose to conservative Christianity. Would you address this point?
      Thank you very much,
      Cathie

      • Hi Cathie.

        Meditating doesn't involve adopting any particular beliefs, or rejecting any existing religious beliefs. If you explore something like Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) you'll find that it was developed in a hospital setting for people who aren't necessarily interested in Buddhism at all. IN fact Buddhism and Buddhist ideas, beyond compassion and mindfulness, just aren't mentioned at all. And it's very effective.

        I'd suggest looking into this.

        All the best,
        Bodhipaksa

    • Dear Cathie

      many thanks for writing and sharing your story. I am sorry to hear you have so much pain. I agree with Bodhipaksa that meditation can be entirely secular and it often is these days especially when applied to health. You may be interested in trying a new online course I have developed based on my own experience of using mindfulness and meditation for pain. Go to: https://breathworks-mindfulness.org.uk/living-well-with-pain-and-illness/mfh.html

      best wishes
      Vidyamala

    • I've been in chronic pain most of my life. I was diagnosed with Juvenile Rheumatiod Arthritis in '88 when I was two years old. Every movement causes me pain. Not agony, but its painful nonetheless. I was fifteen when I was finally put on any sort of pain medication. Its always been very active and my disease has progressed to the point that I've had both hips replaced [in '07 when I was twenty] and I had a partial right shoulder replacement because it deteriorated in less than ten months leaving me in absolute constant pain. I've always delt with it as it came, when it came. As a result of my pain, my heartbeat is a little higher than it ought to be [the adrenaline].
      I have always delt with it as it came, when it came. I only recently thought not to push my way or sit my way through it. But to calm down and breathe my way through the pain. I'll still worry about the future, about my future, but it'll help to know that even though I can't control my pain [or the variables that can bring it on], I can control how I deal with it when it's really bad. It just took me twenty-three years to realize. Well, better now than later…

    • Dear Jamie

      Thanks for sharing your experience. You have lived with pain for a long time and I am so happy to hear you have found a way to live with it, rather than fight it. It sounds like you are only 25 so this is actually very young to have this kind of insight so although you feel its taken you a long time, you are now at a place of real potential for peace of mind and heart. I have just completed an online 'mindufulness for health' course that you may be interested in trying. It will give you a structured programme of mindfulness and skills to work with breath and acceptance over 8 weeks. Go to: https://www.breathworks-mindfulness.org.uk/index.php/breathworks-courses/pain-a-illness/mfh-online-course
      best wishes Vidyamala

    • I started having back pain in 2008. It got so bad I had to stop working. I had operations on my back and knee but the pain was still there. It was so bad that I couldn't ride in a car I would have to have my wife pull over it hurt so bad. Last august I was able to get a handle on it so that it was not so bad. Then in Sept I got hit by a bus and ended up with a broken leg and broken ribs. I am back on pain killers which I had weened myself of last August. I saw a program on meditation on PBS I ordered the package but it hasn't arrived yet. I found your site I am trying to find a way to get control of this without drugs

      Thanks
      David

      • Hi, David.

        I'm very sorry to hear all that you've been through. Have you tried looking for a Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) class in your area? It's a tried, tested, and proven meditation-based method of reducing pain.

        All the best,
        Bodhipaksa

    • Hi David,

      thanks so much for sharing your story.

      Vidyamala asked me to write to you on her behalf and to give you the link to her book:-

      https://www.soundstrue.com/shop/Living-Well-with-Pain-and-Illness/2140.pd.

      The web address is here http://www.breathworks-mindfulness.co.uk. and on it, you will find information about the online Breathworks course, as well as the other resources that I'm sure you'll find helpful as you deal with your difficult circumstances.

      The online course may be ideal for you as it was designed for those living with a chronic condition, who may be housebound or for whatever reason can't access a course run by a trainer in their area.

      Vidyamala has asked me to wish you well and, having done the course myself as well as now training to be a trainer, I feel sure you will find it so helpful.

      Sincerely
      best wishes

      Karen

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