TheDevilAside Posted June 7, 2003 Posted June 7, 2003 I'm no meditator, or master of Ki... I'm actually not even sure what Ki is. But has anyone ever tried getting rid of pain? I don't mean popping some tylenol. I mean actually focusing on not feeling any pain on a certain spot. Lately I've been experiementing... and with quite some success! Whenever I get bruised, cut or injured in any other manner.. I try to focus on ignoring the pain. And it works very well.. I haven't gotten to the point where I virtually feel no pain, but the intensity decreases dramatically. However, I have to keep on focusing on it or else the pain starts again. At one point I even purposely cut myself about an 8th of an inch deep into the skin of my arm (very stupid! I'm never going to do that again) just to see if I could make the pain go away. I got to the point where all I felt was a mild throbbing, but if I quit concentrating on making the pain go away, it would increase to a sharp stinging again. I was amazed. But the infection hurt like hell afterwards! So has anyone tried doing this? I'm going to keep on trying just to see how much progress I can make. Except I won't PURPOSELY hurt myself again. "If you're going through hell, keep going." - Sir Winston Churchill
Kamidake Posted June 8, 2003 Posted June 8, 2003 Interesting. I got to where I tolerated chronic pain, but never tried what you've tried. I'll try it.
SaiFightsMS Posted June 8, 2003 Posted June 8, 2003 Visualization and biofeedback are techniques used in pain control clinics to help people deal with physical problems.
Rich Posted June 9, 2003 Posted June 9, 2003 Here's an interesting little experiment and if you do it properly it seems to work. Lets say you stub your toe on a door. You repeat the motion over and over except you miss the door slightly. Gradually the pain disappears. The strange thing is if you do it with cuts and bruises they seem to be gone a lot quicker. I cut my finger with a kitchen knife- quite a deep slice- I did this litle trick for five minutes and there wasn't even a mark two days later- plus the bleeding stopped almost instantaneously. Mind over matter- the idea was that you teach your unconscious that the injury didnt actually happen but was just a near miss and therefore there is nothing to heal so the mind forces the body to catch up by 'disappearing' it. Its a nice little theory although full of holes. Anyway play with it and let me know what you find. Regards Rich
TheDevilAside Posted June 10, 2003 Author Posted June 10, 2003 Wow, that's very interesting! I'll have to try that. "If you're going through hell, keep going." - Sir Winston Churchill
karate_woman Posted June 10, 2003 Posted June 10, 2003 Relaxing through pain seems to help a lot - especially with muscular pains, as muscular pain is often caused by cramping - relaxing eases it. The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. -Lao-Tse
Ghost Posted June 10, 2003 Posted June 10, 2003 Its difficult because for MA you need to turn the pain off instantly. Take some pain killers before you go training. Deep Heat helps
Rich Posted June 10, 2003 Posted June 10, 2003 Also relaxing through external discomforts also lessens them. If walking through wind and driving rain you find yourself hunched over slightly and griting your teeth against it- just give your muscles permission to relax, straighten up slightly, drop shoulders and the elements just dont seem as bad anymore. I did some experiments with this on cold (and I have bad circulation in the extremeties so my hands go quite blue) and found I could go out in the middle of winter for short periods in t-shirt and shorts without half the discomfort or sensation of cold than before. Didn't make it something I wanted to do regularly but it did make a significant difference. Regards Rich
Martial_Artist Posted June 10, 2003 Posted June 10, 2003 I don't recommend using pain killers before training. I don't recommend any altering drugs before training. When it comes to pain you can ignore it. And you can get used to it. The mind can be a very powerful thing. Through focus and practice you can achieve a level of "pain-ignorance"(ie where you ignore pain and function normally). This can happen instantly. I have received a few deep cuts in my life. (Spear, sword, machete) In all cases the pain was controllable instantly. I was already in the latter years of my training so the pain response was almost reflexive. I didn't feel pain. I continued doing what was necessary until I could find medical attention. Again, I do not recommend "numbing" your mind through artificial pain killers. "I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination.Imagination is more important than knowledge.Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world." Einstein
Iron Fist 05 Posted June 19, 2003 Posted June 19, 2003 One theory that I have about 'mind over mater,' ki, anything along that matter is that if you believe that what ever you do will work, it will work. The placebo affect. If you wanted to begin controlling your ki, you will first have to BELIEVE that you can, or that your ki actully exists. you must do this before you use your ki. One very basic exercise that I have used even before knowing about ki,chi, etc. was to say or think to yourself that the pain doesn't exist. This also works if you are cold. "By the time I was fifteen, I became a white belt."
Recommended Posts