I am not sure if that was it…? Was this weekend the last of any remnants of summer? This weekend was glorious here on the south coast. My new training schedule is under way in preparation for a lot of 10k, 10 mile and half marathon races this Winter (building up for next years marathon again) and the sunshine helped me to really get things under way… The mind over matter only really needed to come into play this morning as my aching limbs were attempting to slow me down!

Self-hypnosis soon got me fully mobilised again!  

I have written a great deal about it this year and there has been much blogging, research and documentation on using hypnosis for managing and overcoming pain without the need for anything else. Today is another day where I get to showcase such…

This hypnosis article at the Telegraph explains:

Psychologists believe people suffering from rheumatoid arthritis (RA) can use hypnotherapy and visualisation techniques to lead a more active life.

The condition is a chronic disease affecting 350,000 people of all ages in Britain. It causes inflammation of the joints, often severe disability and ultimately affects a person’s ability to carry out everyday tasks.

Although drugs and surgery are available to tackle the disease, many patients still report high levels of pain.

In a study by Bryan Bennett and colleagues from Bangor University, Wales, 42 patients were asked to visualise their pain in different ways and try to manage it.

One technique involved participants visualising their pain in the form of a person and then thanking that person for letting them know something was not right.

They would then ask the person to leave, visualising their image going further away until it eventually disappeared, leaving them free of pain.

The results indicated that these imagery techniques, and hypnotherapy, were effective at reducing the pain and fatigue caused by RA.

Mr Bennett said: “All the participants were asked to identify what areas of their life were important to them but were negatively affected due to the RA. By doing so they were taking an active part in their own therapy.

“By employing the techniques they were taught, they were able to self-treat when necessary, allowing them to control their pain and enabling them to get on with enjoying life.’

More great suff, eh?

You can also read further about this research here at medical news today.

It always is with some ambivalence that I write about these continuing streams of research… On one hand it is with delight that my beloved subject is being proven to enhance lives, and on the other hand I have some frustration that more and more is needed for us to make it through to more conventional medical consciousness and for becoming involved in conventional healthcare on a larger scale… We are pushing onwards though!