In a study published in the British Journal of Health Psychology suggested that mindfulness-based awareness is helpful in alleviating symptoms and pain perception related to fibromyalgia by re-orienting relationship and attachment to self and body.
A randomized controlled study suggested that mindfulness-treated group showed significant improvement in “… pain perception, sleep quality, psychological distress, non-attachment (to self, symptoms, and environment), and civic engagement.” Previous studies have indicated that regular practice of mindfulness-based techniques works (and change) areas related to body awareness and self-referential processing (the way we relate to our own self).
Daily duration of time spent in meditation practice was also a reliable predictor of the improvement in improving fibromyalgia symptoms such as poor sleep, psychological distress and chronic pain and tiredness. Previous studies have also indicated the role of Mindfulness based Stress Reduction (MBSR) in managing pain.
Other studies have suggested the role of body awareness in pain perception and healing. By opening our awareness to sense what is happening in our body through curious and non-judgmental attitude allows us to feel what is being felt at sensory level. For example, while doing a retreat for women with gynecological cancer, I asked those on attendance where did they feel their disease. To everyone’s surprise most of the time it wasn’t at the locus where they thought they would feel. Some felt in their chest and others in their hips.
