During my journey through mindfulness, I was lucky to come across a teacher who very kindly sent me a book by vidyamala Burch, living well with pain and illness. I recently signed up this year for the breath works mindfulness for health course to which the book is based on.

For those new to the term mindfulness, vidyamala Burch describes it in a way that relates to those in chronic pain, ‘live in the moment, notice what is happening and make choices in how you respond to your experience rather than being driven by habitual reactions”. Source by Vidyamala Burch

Above in the link is a statement to help you understand that breath works is a complementary practice to medical care, and involves mindful training to help understand your condition and experiences around pain.

A little Background Into BreathWorks

The mission of breath works is to alleviate those suffering from pain and illness to live healthier lives by using mindfulness techniques. Vidymala Burch was the founder of breath works, and her life experiences with pain and using mindfulness techniques to help her pain had a profound effect on her quality of life. Through this, she found a way to help others which later became the breath works program.

BE AWARE is used as an acronym to remember the six-step process the breath works mindfulness for health program offers, in short, it represents the six stages the program uses to outline how the course engages being aware, acceptance, wonder, arising and passing, relating and engaging through various mindful practices and meditation techniques.

Personal Reflection

My personal experience with mindfulness over a year and a half now, I’ve began to face my pain with a lot more dignity, I’ve lost a lot of fear around my pain and found ways to be more involved and active in my life. I’ve experienced changes in my anxiety levels and a decreased amount of dissociative episodes. Mindfulness has become a part of my life and my tool kit to keeping mentally well.

To further my journey in the coming weeks I will be posting reflections on my eight-week journey.

For those further interested in mindfulness-based pain management