This article is in our series featuring pain management techniques to help you decrease and cope with pain. It’s your at-home pain management class!
The first skills that I teach patients are relaxed breathing exercises. These help you reduce pain by helping you relax. Here are 2 for you to try:
You can use these exercises in several ways:
- read through the exercise and then do it from memory (it doesn’t have to be done exactly as I’ve written it)
- tape record the exercise yourself, then play it back for yourself (you can even do this on your cellphone)
- have someone else read or record the exercise for you
Your assignment: Do at least 1 breathing exercise a day