Help Manage Pain With This Simple Trick
By Heather of the Cureve Team
Sometimes medication is not your only option for pain management. While there are times when medicine can be necessary to treat pain, you should consider natural alternatives when possible. Using medicine long term to deal with pain can be hard on the body and the mind, not to mention your wallet. There are other things you can do to manage general pain in your body.
One great pain management alternative is deep relaxation. Deep relaxation is not only good for pain management, but also for dealing with stress and anxiety, inflammation and muscle tension. There are many different positions you can place the body in to help achieve deep relaxation. We will be sharing one of our favorites in this article. Look for some follow up blog posts with some other deep relaxation positions in the future.
There are a few important factors in reaching deep relaxation. Relaxation is one thing, but deep relaxation is another and necessary if you want help finding relief from pain in your body. To get the greatest benefit you need to position the body correctly, spend enough time in the position and know how to breath properly. The combination of these three things will help you achieve deep relaxation and get you on the road to helping manage your pain.
“Legs Up The Wall” is one of these positions and is among our favorites. All you need for “Legs Up The Wall” is a blanket and a wall. This position decreases inflammation in the legs and calms the nervous system. It is also great for the heart and for anyone with heart problems.
How To: You will need 10 minutes to do this. Lay the blanket down up against a wall. Make sure the wall is clear of anything you might hit your legs on when you put them up the wall. Sit with your side to the wall and then swing your legs up the wall. Scoot your butt to the wall and then lie down. Rest your head on a pillow if it does not rest comfortably on the floor. The back of your neck should be long and chin tucked slightly like you have a tennis ball between the chin and the chest. Place your hands on your belly and breathe in through your nose for three seconds and out through your mouth for six seconds. Continue to repeat this for ten minutes. You can do this in silence or put on some relaxing music or other sounds.
*If your hamstrings are tight and/or your back is uncomfortable you can scoot away from the wall until it feels better.
Remember to set yourself up properly. Take the time to make sure the blanket is set correctly and without any wrinkles. It should be smooth and comfortable. Set yourself up as if you were laying down a baby. If you are uncomfortable at all, make the necessary adjustments to get yourself comfortable. Take the time and care you really need to achieve the deep relaxation that is going to help you better manage your pain.
We hope this method helps you as much as it has helped some of us. There are many other ways to set yourself up to calm your body and mind to reduce pain in the body, but this is our go to because it is simple and you do not need much to do it. Plus, you can do it just about anywhere.
We will be sharing some more ways to help achieve deep relaxation and manage pain in coming blog posts. Enjoy, and as always please feel free to reach out to us at info@cureve.com for any questions or comments.
Heather "Feather" Poast is a 500 hour trained yoga instructor, personal trainer, ultra-marathon runner and chef.