See my interview about support groups at the National Pain Foundation website.  I’m interested in hearing about your experiences with pain support groups in the comments.

Here’s a beautiful beach sunrise for you to try as a mindfulness meditation … I could watch this every morning! (Watch for the bird!)

Click here if you’d like to send in a favorite meditation or mindfulness exercise.

How our pain experiences relate to our spirituality/religion is a special interest of mine.  Spirituality was an important way of coping for me when I was suffering due to pain, and one of the most important ways I grew as a person because of the difficult time I had.
This is Part II in a series [...]

We’re looking in this series at pain organization websites that have great sections for patients.  Today’s I’m featuring…
American Pain Foundation
In addition to being sound all-around, this site has a few unique features:

Videos from YouTube
Easy ways to take political action, for example, by sending letters to congresspeople to support pain research
On-line chats with pain experts
A place to share [...]

Check out this beautiful post over at crps-rsd-a-better-life.blogspot.  Had to share it with you!

Mindfulness exercises can focus on many things… here’s a visual meditation you’re invited to try:

Click here if you’d like to send in a favorite meditation or mindfulness exercise.

“Let me not beg for the stilling of my pain but for the heart to conquer it.”  Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941), Indian Hindu mystic philosopher
How our pain experiences relate to our spirituality/religion is a special interest of mine.  Spirituality was an important way of coping for me when I was suffering due to pain, and one of the [...]

Does it feel like you’re looking for a needle in the haystack when it comes to finding a doctor for your pain condition?  Well, today starts my series on pain organization websites that have great sections for patients.  I’ll highlight some of the good info that each offers.
Presenting…
American Academy of Pain Medicine, and
American Academy of [...]

Dr. Bob Stahl speaks about mindfulness meditation, with some examples of patients with pain. (This is from YouTube – now you know I’m hip!)

For 2 understandings of mindfulness, see this previous post.

As a psychiatrist, most of the people who come to see me are unhappy in some way – physical pain, depression, anxiety, etc.  (At least they’re unhappy initially - but hopefully not for long, if I’m doing my job!)
But what do we know about happiness instead of its opposite?  An article by D. T. Max titled “Happiness 101″ explored [...]