In any case I have learned a lot of great ways to live with pain. Here's my top list!
1. Denying it. Yes it sounds silly but if you simply learn to tell yourself it is not important or does not exist it will go away. (everything however has its limits). Pain is the message your nerve endings send to your brain to let you know there is something wrong. IF you already know what is wrong and you tell your nerve endings to stop sending the message, often they just will.
2. Send it back. If the pain becomes too much to deny, then complete the loop and send it back. Become the source and you can control it. At the dentists when my teeth become so hot from the drilling and I can feel the air rushing past the hole that is where my tooth use to be, I become the drill! I close my eye's and imagine what the drill must be feeling. I think about being put away in the box afterwards, how much I can't wait to not be needed for a moment. Psychologically it works just like a battery. Take a 9 volt battery and put it to your tongue and it will shock you. however if you stick it between two conductors it will completely a loop and you can't feel the electricity it gives off. The same thing happens if you grab an electronic rod. Touching someone with one can kill them. Grabbing one quickly and then grabbing something such as a light bulb and you will turn the bulb on with out feeling the electricity it's self. The draw back to this method is that it takes an immense amount of concentration.
3. Music. Listening to music allows me to escape into someone else's head. If I'm sad about something, sad music let's me feel like I am not alone. If I am scared, music of overcoming helps. ETC. Being in pain all stems from somewhere. Strictly physical pain IE: broken bones, passing gull stones, labor etc. Can be subdued by rap music. Music that makes me want to get up on a bar in a bikini and dance for dollar bills (not that I ever would but the image of doing so still erases any physical pain).
4. Ask for help. This isn't something I've done very much until recently. But Josh has shown me how much it's nice to have someone there who's just willing to suffer though with you. :) It's particularly nice if you know you've been there for them too, and that they truly just love you.
5. Laugh! When I broke my shoulder bone (okay Josh broke it but let's not nit pick) I had torn several muscles in my back and was having a hard time moving the left side of my body. I watched What Women Want, one of my favorite movies. For over an hour I didn't even remember I had a broken bone. When I broke my skull my brother Hamilton made me laugh to stay awake. Laughing cures a lot of things, but mostly it cures pain.
Don't believe me... watch this:
Don't you feel better now?
6. Remembering. This only works if you've truly ever experienced anything worse. But if you have, one of the best ways to beat the pain is to say "well it isn't as bad as....." It truly makes it seem not so bad.
If only I didn't have such a low pain tolerance! :D
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