This article is in our series about increasing happiness and life satisfaction.  Many people with chronic pain can’t decrease their pain.  So another way to live a more enjoyable and fulfilling life – perhaps even more important – is to increase the positive.  That’s what we’ll be looking at in this series. The first way we’ll look at to increase positive emotions is […]

This article is in our series about increasing happiness and life satisfaction.  Many people with chronic pain can’t decrease their pain.  So another way to live a more enjoyable and fulfilling life – perhaps even more important – is to increase the positive.  That’s what we’ll be looking at in this series. Our brains are more likely to focus on the “negative”: anxiety […]

This article is in our series about increasing happiness and life satisfaction.  Many people with chronic pain can’t decrease their pain.  So another way to live a more enjoyable and fulfilling life – perhaps even more important – is to increase the positive.  That’s what we’ll be looking at in this series. Based on your own life, what you think the things are that […]

This article is in our series about increasing happiness and life satisfaction.  Many people with chronic pain can’t decrease their pain.  So another way to live a more enjoyable and fulfilling life – perhaps even more important – is to increase the positive.  That’s what we’ll be looking at in this series. You can take a very short happiness quiz (you will have to […]

This is a series of articles about increasing happiness from the perspective of positive psychology.  I hope you’ll follow along and try some of the exercises! Positive psychology looks at ways to promote happiness and life satisfaction.  It differs from what has been the main focus of psychiatry and psychology, which has been to study and treat […]

This story appeared in Practical Pain Management about a person’s coping skills for living with chronic pain and how she handles the challenges that pain presents. I hope it will encourage you to share your story and your coping skills to help others. Living With, and Managing, Chronic Pain: A Patient’s Story

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! Most people report that stress increases their pain levels. So it’s important to both prevent and decrease stress. This article invites you to pick 1 stress management technique to try. Why pick just 1? You’ll […]

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! For most people, stress increases their pain levels. So it’s important to both prevent and decrease stress. Here’s a stress management exercise for you to review. It lists many ways to decrease stress! Your assignment: Pick ONE stress management skill you’d like […]

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! Guided imagery reduces pain through suggestion and images. An image is paired with your pain, and by decreasing or changing the image in some way, your pain may also decrease. Today’s guided imagery uses a sunset […]

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! Guided imagery helps reduce pain even more directly than relaxation exercises through the use of suggestion. An image is paired with your pain, and by imagining decreasing or changing the picture in some way, your pain may also decrease. […]