Soothe pain with meditation

A study presented November 16 in San Diego, California, at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, suggests that practicing meditation for one half-hour each day for four days decreases pain responses in the brain.

Taking brain scans of voluteers who practiced meditation, researchers discovered that brain activity drops in areas devoted to the painful body part and in areas responsible for relaying sensory information, even when the person isn't meditating. In the study, volunteers reported a 40 percent reduction in their perceived pain four days after beginning a meditation program.

Meditation may also reduce pain by essentially making the physical sensations less distressing. "It's really all about the context of the situation, of the environment," said study author Fadel Zeidan in an interview with science news website LiveScience. "Meditation seems to have an overarching sense of attenuating that type of response."

Also, you don't need to have monk-like abilities to experience reduced pain, said Zeidan. New to meditation but still want to reap the benefits? Try these tips for quieting an unquiet mind:

•  Meditate for only one minute (gradually move to 2,3,4... minutes).
•  Use a timer to remind you of an end of a meditation session.
• Instead of trying to stop, welcome whatever arises.
• If you cannot concentrate on the object of your meditation, pay attention to the thoughts and stories occurring in your mind instead.
• If you cannot meditate while sitting, practice mindfulness while eating, talking, running, etc.
• Discuss your problem with a mentor, teacher, or experienced meditator.
• Practice meditation in a group or join a retreat.

For more tips, visit MeditationGeek, a user-friendly meditation blog: http://www.meditationgeek.org/

If you are interested in finding a meditation group, Shambhala, a meditation and spiritual center for Tibetan Buddhist-seekers and non-Buddhists, offers free meditation sessions with over 170 centers around the world: http://www.shambhala.org/centers/

The Chopra Center in California and New York also offers twice daily complimentary meditation sessions, for more information and location and times: http://www.chopracenterny.com/