Natural Pain Relief - The Important Role of Distraction and Detachment

There was a really interesting talk put out on the internet the other day by a guy named Dr Shealy who was being interviewed by Lisa Garr from the Aware Show. He is a leading neuroscientist who specialises in energy medicine and healing through natural energy and alternative methods.

TENs Pain Relief

He is the guy who introduced us to the TENs machine, amongst other things (which stands for Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation ) which is now being used by thousands of people in hospitals and homes around the world to help alleviate and control pain, from pains in pregnancy to acute back pain and more. This portable unit works by sending friendly low-level electrical signals through the skin to the brain to block any pain signals and ease any pain that you are feeling. Plus it can stimulate the release of feel good hormones at the same time, such as endorphin.

Dr Shealy is interested in where pain comes from and how it can be controlled or dissolved naturally by harnessing the body's energy fields and neuro-processes. He is a specialist in pain management therapy and promoting natural recovery through de-stressing, relaxation, distraction and detachment techniques and EFT tapping and massage stimulation of the body's energy meridian points.

Detachment Techniques

Dr Shealy argues that one of the most important ways to control pain is to practice the method of detachment, such as by focusing on something else intently for a while. In his example, focusing on the right thumbnail whilst breathing slowly and deeply until most of what is in your awareness is just that, the thumbnail, distracts the attention away from the pain. He claims that just doing something as simple as that can reduce your felt pain by as much as 50 per cent.

This seems to be borne out by a program that was on TV the other day, where the technique of 'pain management by distraction' was discussed. In the program, a burns patient was suffering a lot of pain every time he had his burn dressings changed, which happened every day. The anticipation of the pain and the association of his 'daily trial' with the room he was in and all its features added to the trauma of the experience.

However what happened next was that he was introduced to an interactive game about snowball fighting, which he was able to watch and interact with through headphones, goggles and a control panel. He interacted with the game during the whole time his dressings were being changed. The result of this distraction technique is that he experienced a 70 per cent lowering of pain levels by the power of his mind, which is pretty impressive.