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When your chronic pain persists after you’ve tried conventional treatments, it may be worth a look at meditation. Even if you’re skeptical, you may find a type of meditation that helps you.

The scientific studies on whether meditation works to lower chronic pain have had mixed results. The wide variety of studies and methods makes them hard to compare.

But the bottom line is that some studies show meditation lessens chronic pain and stress for some people. Studies also show that meditation can work for beginners.

Read on to find out more about the scientific evidence on chronic pain and meditation and how to incorporate different meditation techniques.

Meditation uses different brain pathways to deal with pain from those used by other pain treatments. Over time, meditation can change your brain structure to better deal with pain.

Here’s what some studies reported:

  • A2018年的研究of meditation, mindfulness, and the brain suggested that in the long term, meditation can change the structure of your brain. The resulting change in cortical thickness in some brain areas makes you less pain-sensitive.
  • The neural mechanisms meditation uses to modify pain are different from those used by other techniques. For example, a 2012 study 确定冥想促进了认知脱离和增加的实际疼痛的感官加工。
  • Meditation also induces the body’s own opioid system. A very small, randomized, double-blind2016年研究used the opioid blockernaloxoneor a placebo and studied pain reduction with meditation. The group with the placebo experienced significantly less pain than the group that had the opioid blocker.

Research is ongoing to look at the exact physiological mechanisms involved with meditation.

Yes, for some people. Here are what some studies found:

  • A small controlled study in 2012 发现练习心灵的人能够将疼痛减少22％。他们也能够将预期焦虑减少29％。
  • A2014 meta-analysis心灵和痛苦发现“证据不足”，令人沮丧地降低疼痛强度。但同样的研究发现，它在慢性疼痛的人们缓解了抑郁和焦虑。该研究建议医疗保健专业人员将冥想整合到止痛治疗方案中。
  • A2017 review非武装治疗报道，谨慎的压力减少能够在350名成年人的试验中提高腰痛，超过30％。结果发现了治疗后的一年。
  • A 2017 study 864人患有腰部疼痛的864人发现，冥想与短期改善疼痛强度和身体作用有关。
  • A2018白皮书on nonpharmacological pain care concluded that nonpharmacological treatments are underused. The paper noted that mindfulness practices show positive effects for people with chronic pain from headache, fibromyalgia, and irritable bowel syndrome.
  • A 2018 review of mindfulness and the brain reported that experienced meditators were less sensitive to pain than a control population, as measured by MRI brain scans.
  • A 2019年研究 心灵和痛苦的结论是，心灵敏感性较低，疼痛敏感性较低，包括没有冥想的经验的人。

Every individual is different, so what works to relieve pain for you may not work for other people.

In recent years, the research on meditation and chronic pain has greatly expanded. Studies are looking at what works for different types of chronic pain, such as back pain or chronic diseases.

There are many types of meditation techniques and many tools to help you get started. Here are a few examples:

Some people use more than one type of meditation, and many guides to getting started are free.

Unlike other methods of pain relief, when you meditate, you focustowardthe pain, instead ofawayfrom it, in order to find relief. In other words, you’re not working to block or ignore it but to reduce the pain by working with it.

When you’re ready to try meditation, you’ll findmany typesto choose from. Look for something you’ll feel comfortable doing. Free guided recordings are available so that you can try them out.

Here are some possibilities.

Mindful meditation

Mindful meditation can help you manage stress, pain, and anxiety.

你可以通过自己或老师to guide you. Basically, you quietly concentrate on your thoughts without passing judgment on them.

It’s one of the most popular types of meditation. It’s also been the most studied type of meditation over the years.

A variety of apps can help you mindfully meditate via your phone or another device. You can find a guide to meditation apps这里。

洛杉矶大学加利福尼亚大学的思想意识研究中心（UCLA）有一个免费的19-minute audiosession and transcript to guide your meditation.

Visualization meditation

Guided imagery或可视化冥想在冥想时结合了显示的东西。目的是将你的想法集中起来，让你冷静下来，减轻压力和痛苦。

Headspace has anappthat can guide you through this.

咯咯meditation

咯咯meditation involves using a type of breathing exercise to change your breathing pattern and relax your mind. It’s sometimes used with mindfulness meditation to help you focus.

Many types of breathwork techniques are available. The Mindfulness Awareness Research Center at UCLA has a free5-minute guided audio recordingto take you through this.

Body scanning

Inbody scanning meditation，你精神上专注于你的身体从上到下。目的是注意到你身体的一切，在扫描时放松身体的每个部分。

您可以练习此扫描冥想或躺下。UCLA的心灵意识研究中心有一个免费的3-minute audio recordingfor guidance. There’s also a script you can use.

The University of California at San Diego (UCSD) Center for Mindfulness has many guided recordings for body scanning meditation available这里。

The Mind Illuminated

This approach is based on a popular book, “The Mind Illuminated: A Complete Meditation Guide Integrating Buddhist Wisdom and Brain Science for Greater Mindfulness.” It was published in 2015 and written by John Yates, a meditation teacher, to guide people through stages of meditation.

Yates也是神经科学家。他使用大脑科学以及古老的教义，为初学者和经验丰富的冥想者提供如何手册到校正冥想。

You can buy the book as a paperback, audiobook, or kindle atAmazon。可以找到免费的在线PDF版本这里。

播客和博客discussions are also available.

Scientific studies on the effectiveness of meditating to relieve chronic pain show mixed results. One problem is that it’s hard to compare studies involving particular sources of pain and different types of meditation.

But evidence exists that meditation does help some people with pain. How? Research shows that meditation uses neural pathways that make the brain less sensitive to pain and increases use of the brain’s own pain-reducing opioids.

If you have chronic pain, meditation is worth looking at. Many guides to meditation are available free, so it’s easy to try.