Can meditation help to relieve pain?

Can meditation help to relieve pain?

Mettanando Bhikkhu (Thai Buddhist Monk) gives expert video advice on: How can meditation help with stress?; Can meditation help to relieve pain?; Do you need a mantra to meditate? and more...

It's a kind of non-medical therapy. When you come across patients who have enormous pain I just tell them, "Now, allow yourself to rest, take a deep breath, hold it, and then force it out with intention so that all the pain is released. Do it a few more times." Psychologically it works to a certain level. It's buying time for the medication to take effect and it's useful. It relieves pain, but pain is an abstract sense. People who have agony in life will have conflict and guilt, and their threshold of pain is very low so a small pain is magnified because of it. But a patient who has a good emotional background and peaceful sentiment usually has a higher pain threshold. When we deal with pain there are many elements we are dealing with, so if we teach mental technique it can also help the medication to work more effectively.