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I recently started reading a book called “the mindfulness solution to pain” by Dr. Jackie Gardner-Nix and am hoping that what I learn from this book will help me deal with chronic pain better. I had the opportunity today to put one of its basic concepts into practice during a 2 1/2 hour tattoo session. Instead of fighting the pain, I tried approaching the pain “with bare attention, open-heartedness, and alert interest”. The pain experience was quite different than what I had experienced previously while getting tattooed. For the most part, I did not actually perceive it as pain and was therefore able to handle it much more easily.
The advantage I had while being tattooed over the chronic pain I deal with was that I knew from experience that the time of intense pain would be limited to the time I was actually being tattooed. That is not the case with chronic pain, but I am looking forward to reading more and beginning to practice the mindfulness exercises they offer.
