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{ INTRODUCTION }

Meditations for Pain Recovery is designed for people suffering from chronic pain and recovering from addiction to pain medication. It is a companion book to A Day without Pain by Mel Pohl, MD, FASAM, with Mike Donohue; Pain Recovery: How to Find Balance and Reduce Suffering from Chronic Pain by Mel Pohl, MD, FASAM, Frank J. Szabo, Jr., LADC, Daniel Shiode, Ph.D., and Robert Hunter, Ph.D.; and Pain Recovery for Families: How to Find Balance When Someone Else’s Chronic Pain Becomes Your Problem Too by Mel Pohl, MD, FASAM, Frank J. Szabo, Jr., LADC, Daniel Shiode, Ph.D., and Robert Hunter, Ph.D. However, this book can also be read independently of any other book or program.

Chronic pain affects approximately seventy-two million Americans. The risks of using opioid pain medication and developing addiction are explained thoroughly in Pain Recovery. You need not be an addict to benefit from these daily meditations; however, the premise of this book is that the reader is abstinent from opioids and other mind- and/or mood-altering chemicals. There is also an assumption that those using this meditation book are active in a recovery process and have a therapist, sponsor, or counselor, as well as a support group, whether formal or informal, therapeutic, and/or twelve-step-based.

Each meditation in this book is based on one of five categories taken from either the “four points of balance” or material on relationships in recovery, which are explained in detail in the book Pain Recovery, along with a reflection for each. According to Pain Recovery, “The four points of balance are applicable to any situation in life, including chronic pain.” Use what works for you and leave the rest.

More on the Four Points of Balance and Relationships from the Book Pain Recovery:

PHYSICAL BALANCE

Physical balance meditations will call attention to your being mindful and respectful of your body on a given day. These meditations will guide you to pay attention to the messages your body sends to your brain. On these days you will be guided to evaluate the state of your body thoroughly and continually, although you will do so without becoming preoccupied, asking questions such as:

How am I feeling?

If there is pain, where is it coming from and how bad is it?

What action that has worked in the past might I take to modify it—stretch, change position, get up and move, breathe, listen to soothing music, talk to someone (reach out), or share with someone who is also hurting (give back)?

On days of physical balance, you may be directed to the organized series of maintenance and crisis interventions in the book Pain Recovery that includes regular exercise, meditation, massage, stretching, and chiropractic treatments, in addition to other balancing actions.

Characteristics of a balanced physical experience are:

Eating nutritious foods

Avoiding toxins

Exercising regularly

Getting enough sleep

Practicing relaxation

MENTAL BALANCE

Mental balance meditations will challenge the assumptions you have about your pain and the thought processes surrounding your recovery. Your pain is neither the worst that ever existed nor is it insignificant. It is not a punishment; it is simply an occurrence in the course of your life that has various challenging ripple effects. Balanced thinking results in creating a realistic set of goals and focusing energy and effort into making progress toward achieving each one. This progress leads to diminishment of pain, decreased suffering, and increased function, empowering you to set new goals and work toward achieving them. On mental balance days, pain recovery is based not on blind faith, but on well-thought-out, realistic expectations, and on progressive success that is achieved by applying the tools you have learned in pain recovery. During these days you will continue to see how you change or do not change your thought patterns, and practice using the tools you acquire. Characteristics of mental balance are:

Keeping a positive attitude

Paying attention to and challenging your thoughts

Setting achievable goals

Being open-minded and willing to try new things

Having realistic hope

EMOTIONAL BALANCE

With emotional balance, you accept your emotions and know that it’s okay to feel what you are feeling. On days focused on emotional balance you will continue to remind yourself that you need not be focused on the opinions of others, but that you can focus on hearing and trusting in your own inner voice. You identify your feelings and recognize that they are a major part of you that should be honored. You accept who you are and what you feel in the present moment, and that acceptance allows you to continue making positive changes in your life. Accepting your feelings and being emotionally balanced keeps you from feeling recurring negative emotions. With a focus on emotional balance every few days, you will continue to feel your full emotional experience, knowing that all of your feelings are a part of you. When you are emotionally balanced you are continuing to work toward resolving old issues that you had once avoided, and you work to heal and release your connection to the past, allowing yourself to be free to live in the moment. You are able to feel emotions for each circumstance that shows up in your life without troublesome attachment to old feelings. Characteristics of emotional balance are:

Understanding that feelings are neither good nor bad

Understanding that experiencing feelings will not hurt you

Knowing that feeling your feelings results in healing

Realizing that balanced thoughts create balanced emotions

SPIRITUAL BALANCE

Spiritual balance consists of being connected to your thoughts and feelings and the way you care for your body. When balanced, your spirituality enhances your life. You do positive things that make you feel good, and you help others. You are in harmony with the world and those in it. Whatever life brings, you are able to deal with it and know you are okay. You are able to find meaning and purpose even in situations that are painful. You live in and accept each day as it comes, changing yourself instead of trying to change others. Characteristics of spiritual balance include:

Accepting who you are

Having a sense of purpose

Being open to changing beliefs

Drawing on a source of inner and outer strength

Having values, beliefs, standards, and ethics

Being aware and appreciative of a “transcendent dimension” to life beyond you

Having increased awareness of a connection to self, others, God/Spirit/Divine, and nature through regular spiritual practices

RELATIONSHIPS

Relationships have a category of their own in Meditations for Pain Recovery, because like everyone on earth, you have numerous types of relationships, such as:

Social

Familial

Intimate

Romantic

Acquaintanceship

Business

All of these relationships affect and are affected by your experience of chronic pain. Your relationships are not only an outward manifestation and indication of your overall state of balance; they also have an effect on your state of balance, either negatively or positively.

As you read and think about the meditations in this book each day, it is my hope that you will take ownership of your pain recovery on a daily basis.