"Pain is physical AND emotional 100% of the time."
​- Dr. Rachel Zoffness

Pain is an experience with biopsychosocial factors, including our emotions.

Often times, people living with chronic pain can become angry and less thankful. There may even be some perceived misjustice, as was in my case.
 
It can be helpful to let go of the unpleasant emotions like anger, unappreciation, and blame as they can negatively affect the chronic pain experience, disrupt relationships, and worsen our symptoms – turning up the pain volume.
 
While being forgiving, kind, and grateful won’t magically make the pain disappear; they can help lessen the pain and suffering, foster better health, build self-efficacy, and make life more enjoyable.
 
Learn more and learn how

• How to Forgive in Six Steps
• Jack Kornfield: 12 Principles of Forgiveness (13:42)
• The power of forgiveness (3:28) - I saw this while as a patient at the Mayo Clinic Pain Rehabilitation Center
• A Grateful Day with Brother David Steindl-Rast (5:22)
• How to let anger out | Thich Nhat Hanh answers questions (9:18) - listen to what he tells a little girl how to deal with anger
• Taking the Steps to Forgive Yourself
• Forgiveness: Letting go of grudges and bitterness
• Control anger before it controls you
• 10-minute meditation: Loving kindness (10:07)
• Practicing Gratitude Is More Important Now Than Ever
• Your 5-day gratitude challenge: 5 exercises to increase your gratefulness
• How Cognitive Control Can Boost Well-Being
• Positive thinking: Stop negative self-talk to reduce stress
• Doing What Matters in Times of Stress: An Illustrated Guide
• The Pain Management Workbook - I highly recommend this book from Dr. Rachel Zoffness ​

 
Read the research

• Forgiveness is an emotion-focused coping strategy that can reduce health risks and promote health resilience: theory, review, and hypotheses
• Forgiveness and chronic pain: a systematic review
• Forgiveness and chronic low back pain: a preliminary study examining the relationship of forgiveness to pain, anger, and psychological distress
• Associations between anger and chronic primary pain: a systematic review and meta-analysis
• Loving-kindness meditation for chronic low back pain: results from a pilot trial

Our thoughts, emotions, and behaviors can make pain worse or more manageable.

We can change pain and retrain our overprotective pain systems by changing how we think, feel, and behave using a form of biopsychosocial treatment called Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT).

CBT  has been found to be one of the most efficient approaches for promoting self-management. It reprograms our minds and bodies to help us feel safe and confident in our ability to manage pain and do the things we enjoy — improving the body’s natural pain relief mechanisms, increasing function, and breaking the chronic pain cycle.

.CBT is based on the core principles that our thoughts, emotions, and behaviors interact together with the pain; that we can become trapped in unhelpful thoughts, emotions, and behaviors; and that we can modify our thoughts, emotions, and behaviors to make our experience more manageable. 

It's what changed my pain experience and my life by giving me tools to:

• Accept the pain and live in the present.
• Identify, challenge, and change unhelpful negative thoughts and behaviors.
• Actively self-manage the pain.

Best yet, CBT is a do -it-yourself therapy. You can use it anytime. You don’t need help from anyone once you learn it. And there are no negative side effects.

I learned CBT while attending the prestigious 3-week Mayo Clinic Pain Rehabilitation Center.  

Learn more and do more

• What is CBT?  (McGovern Medical School)

• ​A Magical Cure for Pain? No – it’s just Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (Dr. Rachel Zoffness)
• Managing Chronic Pain: A Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy Approach​ (WebMD)
• Brief Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Chronic Pain: Patient Guidebook (Department of Veteran's Affairs)
• How To Use CBT Thought Records To Change The Way You Feel
• How to recognize and tame your cognitive distortions​
• 15 Cognitive Distortions To Blame for Negative Thinking
• Cognitive Restructuring Worksheet (University of Washington)
• Replacement Thought Examples
• The Pain Management Workbook (Dr. Rachel Zoffness)
• American Association of Pain Psychology Find a Provider tool