An amazingly effective way to turn you fears and worries around and get back in the driver's seat - don't let your fears boss you around!
Even though the pain is rooted in brain patterns, you of course feel the pain in your body! The discovery of the brain's role in maintaining and relieving chronic pain does not mean that you are making it up, or that you are simply imagining it.
The pain is real, but we now know much more about how to relieve it from the inside out as well as the outside in.
Brain/body treatment of pain is safe, effective, non-addicting and compatible with each and every other pain treatment you have found helpful.
This is an incredibly important time to educate people about non-pharmacological approaches to chronic pain because in just the last 12 months, over 100,000 Americans have died from opiate drug overdoses, often having started from trying to relieve pain.
The show features variety of interesting mind/brain/body approaches from guided imagery, mindfulness, hypnosis and biofeedback, to acupuncture, to a novel device called a Scrambler that sends new code via electrical stimulation to break up the closed loops of nerve cell pathways that underlie chronic pain.
The premium reward package sent in appreciation for a contribution to PBS includes the DVD of the show, with extra outtakes, a new book called Pain Brain, and an instructional manual that will show you how to use a low power laser pointer to stimulate acupuncture points on yourself for pain relief. I'm happy to say I authored both books!
Those of you who have already taken my online course Use Your Brain to Ease Your Pain will have some of the gifts included in the package, but you may want the additional encouragement of the experts in the new show, the new book, and the laser acupuncture manual to add to your self-help toolkit. You'll certainly want to watch the show in any case.
Interestingly, and having nothing transactionally associated with our new show, there are several recent media features that address the critical necessity of what we are teaching in this new show. The New York Times recently featured a series of articles called Pain Brain.
"Dopesick" starring Michael Keaton is a chilling dramatization of the selling of billions of dollars of Oxycontin to American doctors and patients by Purdue Pharmaceuticals by claiming that it was a "non-addicting opiate." It's based on the book of the same name by Beth Macy.
Synchronistically, season 4 of Goliath, starring Billy Bob Thornton, is also focused on the same theme.
Both shows are well done and educational about the seamier side of selling pharmaceuticals into the medical marketplace.
]]>When you feel you're not big enough, strong enough, smart enough or simply enough for the challenges you face, take 25 minutes and listen to this powerful guided imagery way to access the qualities you need.
Imagine that the feeling radiates out from that area in all directions, like the rays of the sun. Imagine it penetrating your body, touching every organ, tissue and cell with the feelings it carries, and let that be a good feeling. Imagine soaking it up like a sponge - as if it can fill your bones, your muscles, your connective tissues, your skin, your organs, and especially your brain and down your spinal cord, out through the nerves that carry the messages from your brain to all other parts of the body.
Turn the feelings up until you can feel them filling your entire body, and then the space around your body for 6 inches in every direction. If you like, turn it up even further and imagine filling the space around you with this good feeling for several feet in every direction, or filling the room, or as large a space as you like. Take your time and experiment with how this feels. Then turn the feeling up or down to whatever level is most comfortable for you.
Now run through your plan in your mind again, until you get to the successful ending and feel that feeling again. Then do it a few more times, imagining how good it will feel to have accomplished your goal.
There's a reason that top performing artists, champion athletes, and even the Blue Angels use imagery rehearsal. Every time you mentally rehearse you are reinforcing your decision, and putting a powerful emotional stamp on it that tells your body that this is something you really want to do, that you have the energy to do it, and that you will be rewarded for it. Through imagery, you can experience some of that emotional reward in advance, which greatly increases your motivation and the odds of carrying through. Recall this image frequently, feeling the feeling that goes with it - it'll keep you motivated and on track to having your best year ever.
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Guided imagery can help you whether you have simple tension headaches or a life-threatening disease. Through imagery, you can learn to relax and be more comfortable whether you are well or suffering from a large number of illnesses.
Guided imagery has been shown to decrease muscle tension, increase blood flow to parts of the body, and improve your immune system response. You can use guided imagery to help determine if your lifestyle or habits have contributed to your illness and to see what changes you can make to support your recovery. Guided imagery can help you tap inner strengths and find hope, courage, patience, perseverance, love, and other qualities that can help you cope with, transcend, or recover from almost any illness.
There are, of course, certain symptoms and illnesses that seem to be more readily responsive to imagery than others. Conditions that are caused by or aggravated by stress often respond very well to imagery techniques. These include such common problems as headaches, neck pain, back pain, “nervous stomach,” spastic colon, allergies, heart palpitations, dizziness, fatigue, and anxiety. Other major heath problems including heart disease, cancer, arthritis, and neurological illnesses are often complicated by or themselves cause stress, anxiety, and depression. The emotional aspects of any illness can often be helped through imagery, and relieving the emotional distress may in turn encourage physical healing.
Good medical care for any of the serious problems mentioned above is essential and perfectly compatible with imagery. If you choose to have therapeutic treatments of any kind, acknowledge them as your allies in healing and include them in your imagery. If you are taking an antibiotic or chemotherapy, imagine the medicines coursing through your tissues, finding and eliminating the bacteria or tumor cells you are fighting. If you have surgery, imagine the operation going smoothly and successfully, and your recovery being rapid and complete.
Mental imagery is the native language of the unconscious mind, a language that both mind and body use and respond to as they work towards health and healing. Spending a little time to learn to work with this special language can bring big benefits in your healing journey.
]]>Now make yourself salivate. You probably didn’t find that as easy, and you may not have been able to do it at all. That’s because salvation is not usually under our conscious control. It is controlled by a different part of the nervous system than the one that governs movement. While the central nervous system governs voluntary movement, the autonomic nervous system regulates salivation and other physiological functions that normally operate without conscious control. The autonomic nervous system doesn’t readily respond to ordinary thoughts like “salivate.” But it does respond to imagery.
Relax for a moment and imagine that you are holding a juicy yellow lemon. Fell its coolness, texture, and weight in your hand. Imagine cutting it in half and squeezing the juice of on halving into a glass. Perhaps some pulp and a seed or two drop into the glass. Imagine raising the glass to your lips and taking a good mouthful of the sour lemon juice. Swish it around in your mouth, taste its sourness, and swallow.
Now did you salivate? Did you pucker your lips or make a sour face? If you did, that’s because your autonomic nervous system responded to your imaginary lemon juice. You probably don’t spend much time thinking about drinking lemon juice, but through a similar mechanism, what you do habitually think about may have significant effects on your body. If your mind is full of thoughts of danger, your nervous system will prepare you to meet that danger by initiating the stress response, a high level of arousal and tension. If you imagine peaceful, relaxing scenes instead it send out an “all-clear” signal, and your body relaxes.
Research in biofeedback, hypnosis, and meditative states has demonstrated a remarkable range of human self-regulatory capacities. Using focused imagery in a relaxed state of mind seems to be the common factor among these approaches. Imagery of various types has been shown to affect heart rate, blood pressure, respiratory patterns, oxygen consumption, carbon dioxide elimination, brain-wave rhythms and patterns, electrical characteristics of the skin, local blood flow and temperature, gastrointestinal motility and secretions, sexual arousal, levels of various hormones and neurotransmitters in the blood, and immune system function. This tells us that imagery can affect the major control systems of the body. But the healing potentials of imagery go far beyond its simple effects on physiology.
]]>Taking the time to relax with deep focus will intensify the effects of imagery. Focusing only on what you imagine seeing, hearing, smelling, and feeling makes the scenario more subjectively real to the lower brain centers that signal the deep autonomic responses of the body. In other words, as you get more immersed in your imagery, your awareness of the outer world slips away and your body begins to respond more and more as if what you are imagining is really taking place.
Should your healing imagery focus on the physiologic process of healing or on the ultimate outcome? Is it better if your imagery is anatomically and physiologically accurate, or is it more powerful it it’s symbolic? The research doesn’t yet tell us. A case can be made for either side of these issues, but it costs nothing more to utilize them all and cover all your bases. Consider including these areas in you healing imagery:
1 | Imagery that represents or symbolizes the physical healing you desire. Include here images that represent your immune or illness-defense responses, and the actions of any therapies you are employing, whether conventionally medical or alternative. Imagine your treatments working perfectly—just as they would work if it were totally up to you. Classic examples for cancer patients include imagining any cancer cells or tumor tissue being walled off, destroyed, and eliminated from the body—whether by aggressive swarming immune cells, the effects of medication or radiation, or by imagining shutting off the blood supply to tumors, like a valve shuts off water supply to a sink. How you imagine healing does not have to be realistic or logical– you can imagine being healed by the hand of God, the love of your family, by warrior princesses, by golden or white light, or by any other means that you imagine. The important thing is to imagine the healing being complete and thorough.
2 | Imagine the outcome you desire in a “ bigger picture” format—see yourself in the future, feeling well, thriving, and doing what you love to do with whomever you love to do it. Imagine yourself at future events that are important to you—weddings, graduations, births—and let yourself get into them as completely as you can, seeing what you see, hearing what you hear, feeling what you feel. Imagine a calendar with the dates on it as you do this.
3 | A variation of the last focus is useful if you have felt discouraged or scared by any of your doctor’s predictions or reactions. Include as one of your desired outcomes being with your doctor in his or her office; a calendar on the wall has the date circled; you, the doctor, and anyone else who accompanies you are celebrating the good news that there is no progression or no disease at all, for instance. Imagine your doctor’s response, from puzzlement to excitement, and notice any good feelings you have about overcoming initial predictions.
Your body always tries to do what your mind asks it to do. Give it a clear powerful multi-sensory image of the outcome you desire, do it on a regular basis, and see what your body’s healing abilities can do for you.
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I'm consulting on a brilliant series of 4-5 minute films that show how real people have benefited from various complementary or alternative healing practices. These films are likely to be in wide distribution and we are looking for someone who has had an important, preferably transformational or deeply healing experience from the use of Guided Imagery.
In shamanic cultures the shaman would travel into unseen levels of reality and interact with spirits or entities that were believed to be related to the cause and cure of what a person might be suffering. If you take away the belief system and the elaborate rituals that the shaman participates in—the days of fasting, the rattling, the dancing, the sacrifices and possibly the psychedelic substances—the process looks very similar to what we do with guided imagery.
Some of the Western roots of imagery go back to the ancient Greeks. Aristotle said that imagination was a window to the soul and the ancient Greeks considered the imagination to be an organ as real and important as your liver or kidneys.
They said that the senses take in the world, subtract the matter, and form an image in the psyche. Some of those images stimulated emotions, either positive or negative, and the emotions are what drove the circulation of the “four humors,” invisible circulating substances that greatly determined our state of health.
The sufficient and balanced circulation of the humors either supported your health or, through their imbalance, deficiency, or excess, made you sick. If you translate the term “humors” as hormones, neurotransmitters, and cytokines, all circulating informational molecules that the body uses in order to regulate its many functions, you have a pretty up-to-date model of mind/body medicine!
Mental imagery has been shown to be able to alter blood flow, muscle tension, heart rate, blood pressure, digestive, reproductive and mental function, so it’s well worth the effort to learn how to use your imagination, on purpose, to support and improve your health.
]]>This little workshop works great on this schedule - a couple of hours Friday evening, a few hours Saturday and Sunday morning. Time to reflect, walk, nap, swim in the hot pool, get a massage. You could feel human again! Come on down - you'll get refreshed and renewed.
By the way, this is a terrific workshop for teenagers or college students who overstress. A gift that keeps on giving!
]]>Try drawing or writing about the images you want to evoke. What do you imagine healing would look like if you could witness it in your body? What will you be like if you fully recover? What will you be doing? What will you treasure even more? You might even paint or sculpt healing images—you could, say, make immune cells out of clay and make a model of them eating cancer cells.
Consider creating a place for healing work in your home, your garden, or anywhere there is room to create what could be called sacred space. This could be an altar, a corner of a room, or anywhere you want to consecrate, perhaps by saying a prayer or affirmation, or using a ritual like burning a candle. People who have trouble with imagery often use affirmations of their healing — a statement that usually begins with the phrase “I am . . .,” “ I can . . .,” or “ I will…” — that you can repeat to yourself frequently to calm, stimulate, or remind you about what you want to keep in focus. A simple affirmation like “I am an incredible self-healer” or “ I will do whatever I can to help my healing” can be a helpful tool.
You may want to experiment with music to help fuel your imagery. In the field called Guided Imagery in Music, pioneered by psychologist Helen Bonny, trained therapists use special selections of music to help people access certain emotions. Some music is soothing and relaxing, some is ethereal and inspirational, while other pieces are warlike and heroic. I like using nature sounds or the tonal, evocative music of composer Stephen Halpern, who has created some of the best healing and meditation music available (https://www.stevenhalpern.com/)
Smell can also be a powerful activator of emotions and imagery, perhaps because the olfactory nerve goes directly back into the limbic, or emotional, brain. You might investigate the aromatherapy section of your health-food store to see what effects different aromas have; if you use any that feel especially healing along with your imagery, you may soon be able to use the aroma as a Pavlovian trigger for your body’s healing responses.
Another powerful way to express and augment your imagery is to combine it with movement that gets the body involved. Renowned dancer Anna Halprin has developed a method for this, which she calls “psychokinetic visualization.” If this is of interest to you, her remarkable book, Dance as a Healing Art (LifeRhythm), is a must-read.
A general caution: If you find yourself spending more time and energy criticizing your poor art or imagery skills than creating images of healing, you are going in an unproductive direction. If you need to, work with a qualified imagery guide or psychotherapist to help you over the hump. (The Academy of Guided Imagery has certified more than 750 health professionals who can help you; visit http://acadgi.com/ for more information.)
Successful recovery from any serious illness or condition obviously depends on many factors, come of which are unknowable, some over which you have no control. The purpose of using your mind effectively is to increase the likelihood that you will recover successfully. So why not imagine exactly what you want to have happen, and let the chips (or genes) fall where they may? Let your unconscious, your spirit, your body knows what you want. And then get out of the way.
]]>I have also created The Healing Mind Pain Relief Kit which combines 3 of my most popular guided imagery sessions into one collection designed to focus on a comprehensive solution for pain relief. This kit includes guided imagery audio sessions for "Pain Relief", "Natural Restful Sleep", and "Stress Relief".
More about this program from the KQED website:
The confluence of patients in pain, well-meaning doctors trying to help, and a multi-billion-dollar pain medication industry has resulted in an opioid drug crisis that is taking the lives of 45,000 Americans a year. The educated public, and medical thought leaders are getting vocal about finding other ways to relieve pain and symptoms like anxiety and insomnia without first resorting to addictive and often toxic drugs. Dr. Martin Rossman, a Bay Area physician and acupuncturist for over 40 years, in conversation with KQED's Greg Sherwood, will share from a lifetime of experience working with people with pain, using an integrative approach including acupuncture, nutritional, and mind/body medicine.
]]>Tinnitus (ringing in the ears) is a very common and frustrating symptom - it's distracting, interferes with sleep, makes hearing difficult, and there's no good treatment for it.
My good friend David Brogan, who has worked with me for years and knows quite a bit about mind/body healing, has had long term tinnitus and created a simple self-help strategy that has worked well for him. He calls it "the art of non-attention," and was kind enough to write it up for us. Here's his protocol. Please let me know if you try it out and how it works for you.
Recently, in her blog about fighting stage IV-A cervical cancer, Jeanette Acosta explained her daily routine preparing for chemotherapy and how the guided imagery set “Fighting Cancer from Within” helps her remain calm. For patients undergoing this type of intense cancer treatment, mental wellness is an essential part of the overall healing strategy. To learn more about how guided imagery can help cancer patients effectively manage their condition check out “Fighting Cancer from Within” by Dr. Martin Rossman.
Image Courtesy of Linda Bartlett
Found here: wikimedia commons
At the core of this work is guided imagery—basically, a technique of highly focused daydreaming, the tools for which almost every possesses: attention, intention, will, and, most important, imagination. Like all higher brain functions, imagination is a mystery, but it’s not mystical. It’s simply a way of thinking that uses sensory information for processing, consisting of thoughts that can be seen, heard, smelled, tasted, or sensed in some way in your mind. Memories, dreams, fantasies, plans, illusions, and lies all involve imagery—guided imagery is simply more directed and, in terms of using it for your health, based on the proven premise that when your mind is focused on healing, your body responds. While imagery is not a substitute for physical interventions, it enhances those therapies in many important ways.
How so? Imagery is closely tied to our emotions, and emotions can help or hinder us in our efforts to heal because they produce physiologic changes. In fact, imagery has been shown to affect almost all major physiologic control systems of the body, including breathing, heart rate, blood pressure, metabolic rates, digestive functions, and, perhaps most important, immune-system response. The fact that guided imagery has become widely accepted as a useful adjunct in cancer treatment speaks to its effectiveness. It has been shown to increase both the numbers and aggressiveness of natural killer cells (immune cells that eliminate cancer cells), reduce complications from surgery, relieve pain and stress, and reduce adverse effects of chemotherapy.
If it sounds fantastic, remember that the human brain is the world’s greatest pharmacy, making chemicals that control most of the trillions of functions going on in our bodies all the time. And the key to that pharmacy, says David Bresler, Ph.D., founder of the UCLA Pain Control Clinic, is imagery, because of its three-way relation to thoughts, emotions, and physiology. By using effective mental imagery, it is possible to trigger the body's natural response and effectively manage pain and illness without always needing to rely on pharnaceuticals and invasive medical procedures.
Jogger Image Courtesy of "Mike" Michael L. Baird
Found here: wikimedia commons
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In many ways it’s probably the oldest medicine there is. Every ancient culture had imagery-based rituals. They might have been called prayer or sacrifice or ceremony or taking a journey to another world, such as a shamanic healer might say, but however they explained it, the methods are similar.
For instance, with shamanic healing you go looking for help and call up power animals or guides. You might encounter and negotiate or do battle with a spirit that is believed to be involved in the creation of the illness in question. But if you take away the elaborate ritual that the shaman participates in, the process looks pretty similar to guided imagery in terms of what actually happens. As a physician, I'm interested in the effect the Mental Imagery has on you and whether it makes your headache go away. Do you feel more powerful in relation to dealing with your tumor or your arthritis? That’s really the effect we are looking for.
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