Enter the Change a Habit Contest through 1/31!
Each Monday, we’ll look at ways to cope well with pain and how to get yourself to use helpful techniques regularly. It’s your at-home pain management class!
So far in this series, we’ve looked at the stages we go through when changing a habit, and what’s useful at each stage, to help yourself make a change. Today we’ll start to look at some pain management skills and exercises that might be helpful for you to use regularly.

The first skills that I teach patients are relaxed breathing exercises. These help you reduce pain through helping you be more relaxed. Here are 2 for you to try:
There are several ways to use these exercises:
- read through an exercise and then do it from memory (it doesn’t have to be done exactly as I’ve written it)
- tape record the exercise yourself, then play it back for yourself to do
- have someone else read or record the exercise for you
Your assignment: Do at least 1 breathing exercise a day
Questions? Comments? Leave them below. And let me know how you do with these!
Next Monday, we’ll look at a basic relaxation exercise for pain relief. Other articles in this series:
- How to change a habit, part 1
- How to change a habit, part 2
- Relaxation exercise
- How to succeed with your new habit
- Breathing exercises, part 2
- 6 great ideas so you succeed with your new habit
- Cats succeeding at their New Year’s resolution
- Visualization
- Guided imagery, part 1
- Guided imagery, part 2
- Stress management, part 1
- Stress management, part 2
- Why people with pain can’t sleep
- 9 tips to get better sleep
Thanks to Szlea for the photo.
2 responses so far ↓
Nickie // Jan 28, 2008 at 9:12 pm
I wish I’d looked at these about two or three years ago. I had started to use a common breathing pattern, which is believed to be relaxing. But the idea was to breath into your stomach, and I wasn’t letting my chest expand at all. Soon, my chest was very tight, and I’m just now learning to breath and fully fill my lungs.
How to Cope with Pain // Jan 29, 2008 at 4:52 am
Great! Glad the exercise is helpful.
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