California, showed substantially reduced trauma in institutionalized abused teen- agers after just one EFT session.


Meditation vs. Medication:


Meditation may not resolve the underly- ing cause of chronic pain, but research from the University of Alabama demon- strates it can interrupt pain signals to the brain. It’s at least as effective as opioid painkillers in relieving chronic pain, ac- cording to a study led by Cherkin at the University of Washington. His team’s 342 subjects that had ex-


perienced back pain weekly for at least a year were offered either eight meditation and yoga classes, eight cognitive behav- ior therapy (CBT) sessions or just keeping up their own regular daily routines that did not include yoga and meditation. The results, recently published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, confirm what numerous other studies have reported: 44 percent experienced a


“meaningful reduction” in pain within six months of the meditation or CBT ses- sions, equal to results reported by people taking addictive opioid pharmaceuticals. More, the pain relief continued for up to two years, even if the subjects stopped doing actual sitting meditation. “Meditation changes the way people think about pain and how they develop skills to keep it from becoming a major focus in their lives,” observes Cherkin. Regardless of the mechanism, experts in a holistic approach to chronic pain relief agree that encourag- ing self-control, self-determination and self-empowerment makes a huge differ- ence in patients’ abilities to control pain more naturally and effectively.


Kathleen Barnes is author of numerous natural health books, including Our Toxic World: A Survivor’s Guide. Connect at KathleenBarnes.com.


How to Tap Away Pain


please recycle


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A smile is happiness you’ll find right under


your nose. ~Tom Wilson


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18 Austin Edition


apping, or Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT), soothes the body


by turning off the “fight or flight” stress response that can cause inflammation and worsen pain, according to Tapping Solutions founder Nick Ortner, of New- town, Connecticut. Here’s how to do it:


Identify the problem (e.g., pain in back of neck).


Rate the intensity of feelings about the problem on a scale of one to 10.


Compose a statement about it (e.g., “Even though I have intense neck


pain today, I deeply and completely accept myself”).


Using one or two fingers on one hand, tap the “karate chop” area on the outer edge of the other hand while repeating the statement three times.


While repeating, e.g., “intense neck pain,” using firm, but gentle pressure, use either two or four fingers to tap these areas, on either side, five to seven times in sequences as follows:


 side of eyebrow  side of eye  under eye  under nose


AustinAwakenings.com


 chin  inner collarbone  under arm  top of head


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Refocus on the original problem and rate its intensity. Restate what you’re feeling, as needed.


Source: The Tapping Solution for Pain Relief, by Nick Ortner; instructional video at Tinyurl.com/JessicaOrtnerTapping.


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