by Mark Grant MA
Attention is the doorway to your brain. May sufferers of stress and pain have concentration and attention problems; they find it hard to concentrate normally and what they do concentrate on tends to be negative. Or if something good happens, they can't enjoy it because they can't stay focused on it. Practice focusing on something positive and/or relaxing such as music or reading a book. Even if you find your mind wandering, don't get angry; just bring it back to your chosen activity. If you keep doing this your concentration will improve. Another excellent way of improving your concentration and attention is meditation (see below).
Know that feeling such as anger, fear and depression are normal reactions to pain and distress. All feelings, no matter how seemingly bad or unhelpful, represent your nervous system's attempt to cope with what is happening and contain important information about needs and coping. For example, depression is often associated feeling overwhelmed and with thinking “what's the use?”. Why? Because depression also means that what you're doing isn't working and you need to try something different. Or it might mean that you really do need to just crawl into a hole and sit things out for a while. So instead of judging your feelings, try and relate them to what is happening and see what message they have for you.
Stress and pain inevitably involve increased physical tension and emotional distress. Relaxation and meditation are two of the oldest and most reliable methods for reducing physical and emotional distress. Both methods cultivate physiological stillness, mental detachment and emotional calm. Take a course or buy my Calm and Confident CD and practice at least half an hour day. You will notice yourself feeling better within one week, if not sooner.
Stress and pain inevitably involve sleep disturbance, in many forms. The most important thing is to make sure you are as relaxed as possible before you go to sleep. This can be achieved by engaging in a mildly stimulating but routine activity before bed-time (such as reading or knitting). This will de-activate your mind and allow the natural sleep cycle to kick in. For highly stressed individuals, a complete change of routine may be necessary. Free-sleeping means accepting that you cannot sleep normally at normal times, and instead sleeping wherever you can whenever you can (if you listen to your body it will tell you). The aim is not to sleep normally, but to get as much sleep as you can within any given 24 hours.
Regular exercise is simply the cheapest strategy for reducing stress and pain. Apart from the obvious physical benefits, regular exercise (within your physical capabilities) raises your mood, improves concentration and even stimulates neuroplasticity. You don't have to do much, 30 minutes per day of moderate exercise is sufficient to benefit most people. As with most things, you must stick at it. Finding someone to share your exercise with can help with maintaining motivation.
Mark Grant is a psychologist, specializing in the management of chronic pain and trauma. His advice is based on many years of clinical experience working with persons affected by chronic pain and trauma.