Coaching practices for Mindfulness and Pain Relief
Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For Mindfulness and Pain Relief, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.
Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?
- When I’m aching, the more I focus on the sore spot the bigger it seems to get, until it’s all I can feel
- I live with this ongoing ache, and the worst part isn’t even the ache itself
- My whole instinct is to push pain away and grab at anything that feels good, and I’m tired of how walled-off that makes me
- I’m stuck at one of two extremes with hard feelings
- Whenever I try to be present I end up grading myself
Practices that may help
- Deploy attention away from pain and physical discomfort
Shifting attention away from pain signals reduces the experienced intensity of pain — a clinically proven, non-pharmacological technique.
Attentional Deployment, Made Practical - Applying the body scan to chronic or acute pain
Use the body scan to observe pain as sensation rather than threat, reducing the secondary suffering of pain-related fear.
Body Scan Meditation, Made Practical - Tonglen: sending and taking
Breathe in suffering (yours and others’); breathe out relief and well-being.
Lojong: Tibetan Mind Training - Mindful awareness of suffering
Hold painful feelings in balanced awareness — neither suppressing them nor being swept away by them.
Self-Compassion, Made Practical - The attitudes of mindfulness
Cultivate the inner stances — non-judging, patience, beginner’s mind, acceptance, letting go — that make attention healing rather than harsh.
Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) - Practice tonglen for your own suffering first
Use your own current pain as the object before extending the practice to others.
Tonglen: The Tibetan Practice of Taking and Sending - Approach the pain sensation with curiosity, not bracing
Turn toward the pain with the attitude of a curious scientist rather than a fearful sufferer.
Somatic Tracking, Made Practical - ACCEPTS — structured distraction from crisis
Use Activities, Contributing, Comparisons, Emotions, Pushing away, Thoughts, and Sensations to redirect attention during a crisis.
Distress Tolerance Skills, Made Practical - Qigong for chronic pain management
Regular gentle qigong reduces chronic pain severity through central sensitization modulation and improved body awareness.
Qigong: Evidence-Based Mind-Body Practice - Apply somatic tracking to difficult emotions as well as pain
The same curious, non-fearful attention that retrains pain responses can be applied to emotional sensations in the body.
Somatic Tracking, Made Practical
Related concerns
- How To Meditate With Pain
Use the body scan to observe pain as sensation rather than threat, reducing the secondary suffering of pain-related fear.
Applying the body scan to chronic or acute pain
- Reduce Pain With Attention
Shifting attention away from pain signals reduces the experienced intensity of pain — a clinically proven, non-pharmacological technique.
Deploy attention away from pain and physical discomfort
- Acknowledge Pain
Acknowledge suffering as it actually is — without dramatising it or spiritual-bypassing it.
First noble truth — recognising dukkha honestly
- Isolation And Pain
Say to yourself: "Suffering is a part of life — I am not alone in this."
Common humanity: remember you are not alone
- Neuroplastic Pain Treatment
Before practicing somatic tracking, determine whether the pain fits the profile of brain-generated rather than structural pain.
Identify whether pain is likely neuroplastic
- Alan Gordon Pain Reprocessing
Somatic tracking, developed by Alan Gordon as the central technique of Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT), involves observing bodily sensations — especially pain — with open, curious, non-fearful attention. The goal is to change the brain’s interpretation of safe signals from dangerous to neutral, which can reduce or eliminate neuroplastic pain. A 2021 randomized controlled trial (the BOULDER study) found PRT produced significant pain reduction vs placebo and usual care for chronic back pain, with 66% of PRT participants reporting being pain-free or nearly pain-free.
Describe your situation in your own words to search the complete practice library.