Breathing to Control Pain

Did you know Buddhists have been practicing mindfulness for over 1500 years? Buddhists breathing practice is called Anapanasati. Ana and Pana meaning to breath in and out, and sati meaning mindfulness, so the mindfulness of breathing. The traditional method was to go into the forest and sit underneath a tree, then simply to observe the breath. If the breath is long, to notice that the breath is long, if the breath is short, to notice that the breath is short.

The Evidence At this point some of you might be thinking "I have literally been breathing my whole life, how could this affect my pain?"

Breathing practice and mindfulness are often placed in the "alternative therapy" category but in reality there is a considerable amount of scientific literature to support it. Multiple studies have found that using relaxed, slow breathing techniques you can have a significant impact on pain as well as improving negative emotions such as anxiety, depression and stress. This has been found to be true for many groups of people including women in labour, lower back pain, burn victims, osteoathritis and fibromyalgia.