Pain and Stress Reduction
Is Truly Possible

Pain and stress reduction is the reason that I became relentless in searching for the answers in the beginning.

I’ve mentioned before that I was strongly motivated to find out how to reduce stress, as well as pain, because I hurt so much at the time that I didn’t know how I could bear to live any longer!

It was a real bonus to discover that the basic techniques and strategies that worked for me, worked for both pain and stress reduction.

But I really did want to live to be with my daughter and husband, so I was determined to find the answers. And even though I worked hard to find those answers, I was skeptical.

I didn’t really believe solutions existed, or that there was anything I could ever do (beyond taking prescription meds) that would ever provide any relief for pain and stress reduction. Thank God it turned out I was wrong!

Prescription meds stopped providing true relief pretty early in the journey. Or at least whatever relief they provided was dampened by the miserable side effects.

I had constant dry mouth, was so exhausted that I was always nodding out (scary since I still needed to drive), couldn’t think straight, and felt like I was trying to fight my way out of a fog…it wasn’t much of a life.

When I found the first of the techniques I describe on this site, I was amazed, joyful, and caught up in the miracle that there was even some small hope of transforming my life experience into an enjoyable one.

Even the intense pain (that I still pretty much constantly experienced at the time) stopped totally consuming my thinking.

This was because I had begun to hope and believe that studying the methods and strategies I now teach could possibly have some effect, any effect at all! So I wasn't always worrying anymore about pain and stress reduction, and instead I had begun using my new techniques...

And it didn’t take long before I noticed how incredible it was that the pain no longer totally consumed my thoughts…the absence of this type of thinking made such an impression on me. As the saying goes, “the silence was deafening.” As I continued to create and learn to use new strategies, my mind became more and more quiet and peaceful.

Over time, I realized that the main cause of stress had always been from the thoughts I was thinking, and the fact that I believed everything I told myself!

I had been telling myself things like “this isn’t fair,” “why me,” “what can I do to stop it,” “will it ever end,” “other people are lucky not to have chronic pain,” “what did I do to deserve this,” and on and on.

As I studied and experimented, I began to see that my thinking patterns truly were at the root of all my problems.

I realized that these patterns added not only to the pain I was seeking to relieve by tightening up my body around the already painful areas, but worsened any stress about normal situations that would come up, as well as stress about the chronic pain.

I guess I never truly understood that my mind could be powerful enough to unconsciously make me so much more miserable.

Certainly I never realized that my mind alone was powerful enough to dramatically effect pain and stress reduction to a manageable amount, much less to reduce pain and transform it from pain with suffering to pain without suffering, and therefore not a problem.

But thankfully, it did turn out to be the case! My disbelief softened as I realized the amazing power of the mind.

And as I began to share this fact with friends and family, it dawned on me that my new skills could apply to other people’s suffering as well, and that it was my joy to teach those who wanted to cultivate those skills.

The system I learned and began to teach didn’t appear overnight—-it evolved. There were elements of one technique that worked for me as is, and other elements of the same technique that I modified to fit my system. As I evolved and cultivated these skills, I created more strategies to add to my system.

For instance, during my study of mindfulness based stress reduction, I learned that present moment awareness was important, yet I personally didn’t feel that there was enough specifics and step by step instruction given in the program.

I did find some step by step instructions within a Buddhist framework, and although this helped me to more clearly define my system, I had no taste for the religious aspects of Buddhism that every teacher I found in it related.

I believe we are spiritual beings having a human experience, so spirituality is throughout my system, but not organized religion of any kind.

So it was a process, an evolution, to discover what various techniques and strategies worked for me and for my clients in what combination, and that’s what I’ve documented on this site. Return from Pain and Stress Reduction to Home Page