Natural Pain Relief

By Sharon Jentzer, Captain, USN (Ret.)

Jentzer Wellness Institute

More Complementary & Integrative Healthcare Articles

Natural Pain Relief

Wouldn't it be nice to live pain free? Everyone experiences minor aches and pains that are part of living in a physical world. For most people, these aches and pains slip away as quietly as they came. But what if pain dominated your world, every waking moment, and every sleepless night spent suffering through gnawing, unceasing pain?

When your body is talking to you, you experience that conversation as pain. Don't tune it out. Find out what your body is trying to tell you, then find out how to help your body heal itself. That's right. Your body has an amazing ability to heal itself.

One way to visualize how your body works is to picture it as a very complex factory. This factory needs high quality raw materials, well-oiled, properly adjusted equipment, and the proper software program to make the whole system work.

You supply the raw materials as nutrients you eat and drink. You use exercise to maintain your equipment, the bone structure and all of the organs in your body. You write and run the software in your brain that coordinates what goes on in your entire body. You can even learn to update your brain's software program through meditation.

Back pain, in particular, is very common in sedentary cultures such as ours. It is so common, that a medical doctor in Hawaii built his entire medical practice on helping people to heal their back problems through yoga, after his own back pain was resolved through yoga. You have options. You should consider trying your least invasive options first.

For pain in general, many people find relief through meditation. Researchers from American University are currently using yoga nidra, a form of meditation, to help veterans at Walter Reed Army Medical Hospital to reduce their pain symptoms.

You don't have to be a wounded warrior to get help. Meditation training is available free, or at low cost right in your neighborhood. Check the Health Calendar in this magazine, or contact your nearest yoga instructor to learn how to meditate.

Sage Vasishtha said, “the greatest blessing for someone on the path of yoga, is the company of others on the same path…” If you are on the path of wellness already, invite someone to join you. If you are trying to get on the path to wellness, join someone who is going your way.