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:

• Breathing #1
• Breathing #2

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.