Anyone who’s ever done a lot of meditation might think at first, God, does this hurt! It’s true: when you first get into sitting, especially if you’re sitting in a cross-legged position, it can really do a number on your knees. Sure, you should sit with the pain, observing it and noticing it — and (most likely) you’ll eventually see it dissipate.
But could it be that meditation actively combats pain? It would appear so. A new University of Montreal study released yesterday in a special issue of the American Psychological Association journal, Emotion, says that Zen meditation “helps lower sensitivity to pain” by thickening the the anterior cingulate, a part of your brain that regulates pain and your mental reactions to it. Overall, Zen meditators monitored in a related study experienced an 18% reduction in sensitivity to pain.
Jon Kabat-Zinn has been using meditation to help with pain for quite a while now, with amazing results. I'm curious though about the use of this word "sensitivity" – were those Zen meditators actually 18% less able to sense pain? Or were they 18% more capable of working with or sitting with a particular pain? You can drug or distract someone to make them less sensitive, but I think it is a unique effect of meditation that expands one's awareness 'around the pain' so to speak, thus making it more bearable.
Absolutely right about Jon Kabat-Zinn, Justin. Don't miss our interview with him from the current issue; you'll find a link in this post.
It's important not to intellectualize this, for that is how pain persists.
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