Mindfulness Is More Than Yoga

Barby Ingle, PNN Columnist

For years I’ve used mindfulness meditation techniques to help with my chronic pain. So imagine my surprise last week as I was watching the Pain Management Best Practices Inter-Agency Task Force meeting and a practitioner on the panel said yoga and mindfulness are essentially the same thing.

I’ve never done yoga as part of my mindfulness meditation. But it made me start to wonder. Have I been doing mindfulness wrong for years?

A quick Google search showed me there are more than 25 mindfulness activities. Yoga was one of the items on the list, but not everyone doing yoga is doing it for mindfulness. Most use it for physical exercise.

Another practitioner on the task force said that mindfulness is not a treatment by itself and that it is typically done in conjunction with other modalities. I totally agree. There are many group and individual activities that use mindfulness to reduce stress, anxiety, depression and pain.

Mindfulness is just one form of self-care that I use do to help manage the symptoms of living with chronic conditions. By itself, mindfulness is not enough to sustain me, but in conjunction with other treatments I find it helpful.  

I personally like individual mindfulness activities. Some of the activities are really short and some take up to an hour. Depending on what I need, I choose one that best suites me in the moment. Some of the activities I use for improving my life include virtual reality, self-compassion, reviewing my "I Am" list, meditation, 5 senses exercise, breathing exercises, music therapy and aroma therapy.

If you have trouble practicing mindfulness alone, one of the group activities is known as the FAKE plan, which involves about 8 members meeting for 2 hours every week for 12 weeks. The first portion of each session is devoted to a short mindfulness exercise and discussion, and each week is dedicated to a specific type of mindfulness exercise.

This is great for patients with social anxiety disorder but can also be helpful for others who want to work on their social skills through group mindfulness activities.  

Another mindfulness exercise that I found in my Google search (but have not yet tried) involves staring at a leaf for 5 minutes. A leaf is like a fingerprint or snowflake -- no two are the same. You can focus on the leaf’s colors, shape, texture and patterns. This type of activity brings you into the present and helps align your thoughts.

When I am not able to perform the physical or cognitive tasks I want to because of physical pain, I can get situational depression. For me, this is the best time to use my mindfulness activities. One study identified three ways mindfulness helps when you are depressed:

1.  Mindfulness helps people learn to be present in the moment, take stock of their thoughts and feelings, and choose an appropriate response rather than get caught up in negative emotions.

2.  Mindfulness teaches people that it’s okay to say “no” to others, which helps them balance their own lives and enhance self-confidence.

3.  Mindfulness allows people to be present with others, making them more attentive to their relationships, aware of their communication problems and more effective in relating to others.

These are important tools that can help chronic pain patients better manage their lives. Mindfulness activities help clear your mind of worry about the past or future and allow you to focus on the present.

Whether you are using mindfulness for anger, depression, chronic pain, anxiety or just for overall mental health -- it is important to keep an open mind. I know that is easier said than done when you are in severe pain. But the more you practice mindfulness the easier and more useful it becomes.

Can mindfulness cure you? No. Its purpose is to relax and help put life into perspective. If you are angry and distressed, that’s okay. I go there too sometimes. I use mindfulness to live in the moment and manage my emotions so that I am better able to manage my physical pain.

Barby Ingle lives with reflex sympathetic dystrophy (RSD), migralepsy and endometriosis. Barby is a chronic pain educator, patient advocate, and president of the International Pain Foundation. She is also a motivational speaker and best-selling author on pain topics. More information about Barby can be found at her website. 

The information in this column should not be considered as professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. It is for informational purposes only and represents the author’s opinions alone. It does not inherently express or reflect the views, opinions and/or positions of Pain News Network.