The experience of chronic or acute pain is generally not a pleasant experience and can wear us down mentally and physically. There are also many kinds of pain including physical, mental and emotional pain. Some people are dealing with all three. Fortunately we do in fact possess the ability to change the way we perceive our pain. In a state of deep relaxation, meditation or hypnosis we can literally lose awareness of some or even all parts of our body which shows us that our mind has the ability to partially or in some cases completely dissociate our minds from our normal bodily sensations. To take another example, athletes, first responders and soldiers have had the experience of responding to an emergency and have been so focused on the event that they only later realised that they had been injured. Hypnotherapists can teach people to use this ability to better manage their own pain and even turn down the level of pain they are experiencing. Hypnotherapy can also help people to manage their reactions mentally and emotionally so that they become more resilient and better able to deal with their situation psychologically. Hypnotherapy is even used to assist women to give birth naturally in a pain free way. Our minds and bodies are do indeed have incredible abilities.
