Hearing that you need to relax can invoke the opposite response. Instead, giving yourself permission to relax on your own terms is much more helpful. In this lesson, you’re going to learn techniques to relax and manage your stress, your way.

Stress and Chronic Pain

Stress and chronic pain go hand in hand. Chronic pain can cause stress in our lives. However, stress can lead to increased pain. When we’re stressed, our muscles tense up. It’s a biological response.

When we’re in danger, our brains launch a fight or flight response. Our muscles tense up so we can either fight the threat or run away. In this case, the threat is pain. However, as chronic pain sticks around for a long time, we end up in a constantly stressed state.

The good news is that we can control the opposite response: relaxation. Relaxation has the opposite effect that stress does on our body. It reduces the fight or flight response. The muscle tension releases when we relax. This can help reduce some pain.

Relaxation Techniques

Breathing Deeply

This exercise gets you to fill your lungs with air and control your breathing. You can do this anywhere, at any time. It can be customized to your liking.

• Sit upright
• Close your eyes
• Place your hands somewhere where they are relaxed (on your belly is a good spot)
• Slowly inhale through your nose for 3-5 seconds
• When you inhale, fill your belly (do not raise your shoulders)
• Slowly exhale through your mouth for 3-5 seconds
• Repeat for 3-5 minutes

You can customise this technique. You can lay on your back or make a sound when you exhale. Each time you breathe out, you can repeat a mantra to yourself (e.g., “I am safe,” “I can relax,” etc.).

You can visualize the tension releasing from your body. For example, imagine there’s a dark gas in your stomach. Every time you exhale, some darkness escapes. Every time you inhale, a light gas of your favorite color mixes in.

Imagery

Reflect on your ideal image of relaxation. This can be a memory, a place you love, or a made-up scenario. You want to choose one place where you can mentally visit when you’re stressed. This way, when you mentally visit this one place, your brain will know it’s time to relax.

When you’re stressed, close your eyes and picture this place. Focus on the details of the scene. Tap into your senses. What does it feel like to be there? Do you smell anything? What do you hear and see? Does it taste like anything?

For example: “This takes place at on a sunny day at a friend’s cottage. I’m lying on a floatie in the middle of a lake. Here, I feel the sun on my skin and the motion of the water. I hear the wind through the trees, birds chirping, and some far away boats. I smell my coconut sunscreen and the fresh air, and I taste lemonade.”

You can pair this exercise with deep breathing.

Progressive Relaxation

This technique trains your body into noticing when you’re tense and where. You’ll go through each muscle group and gently tense and relax it. This works because your muscles cannot be tense and relaxed at the same time. When you understand the sensation of tension, you can learn to relax that part of your body.

You are to gently tense the muscles. This tension should not hurt you. It may be uncomfortable. If it does hurt, you can try to visualize your muscle tensing and releasing instead.

Begin with your deep breathing exercise. Tense and relax the first muscle group. Tense for about 5 seconds, relax for about 10-30 seconds. Repeat for each muscle group. You may repeat this for muscle groups that are really tense.

Here are some groups to focus on:

• Feet
• Lower legs
• Upper legs
• Buttocks
• Lower back
• Abdomen
• Chest
• Upper back
• Shoulders
• Arms
• Neck
• Mouth/Jaw
• Face

You can start from the bottom of the body and work your way up or you can do the opposite. You can do whatever pattern you like, as long as it makes sense to you.

Guided Meditation Demonstration

It can help to have someone guide you through a meditation, rather than relying on your stressed self to get you through a relaxation exercise. You can learn to borrow techniques from these experts and eventually become good at guiding yourself.

Our video library has several relaxing guided meditations. Check out some of our meditations here. Below we’ve included one for finding your peaceful place.

The following video is a guided meditation for people with chronic pain. It focuses on relieving stress about your pain in the moment. It is led by Sheena, of PsycheTruth. She is a yoga teacher who has fibromyalgia and has created this meditation for people like her.

Reflect

Take a moment to reflect on what relaxation methods work for you. If you are not sure, it’s important to note that everyone is different. It may take some trial and error to find something that works for you.

How can you implement relaxation into your current daily life? What new relaxation techniques would you like to try?

In the next lesson, you will learn about how to get better sleep to help you feel better.

Take the next quiz to move on.