Living with chronic or persistent pain can feel overwhelming, both physically and emotionally. Many describe it as a constant battle, trying everything to make it go away, only to end up feeling frustrated, exhausted, and searching for answers. 

Mindfulness-based pain management offers a different approach. It doesn’t promise to make your pain disappear, but it can help you feel less consumed by it. Instead of constantly struggling, mindfulness helps us work with our minds, rather than against them. We can then become more aware of unhelpful behaviours and thought patterns that keep us in a cycle of flare-ups, tension and anxiety. 

Take a look at the short animated video below to see this in action:

 

How does mindfulness help with pain?

Prevents symptoms from escalating

When we’re in pain, it starts with the raw sensation but quickly, our thoughts, fears, and worries rush in. What if this gets worse? Why can’t I handle this? How will I cope tomorrow? These reactions can amplify the pain, making it feel consuming and impossible to escape. 

Mindfulness helps us step back to separate the physical sensations from the fear and catastrophising, to notice the stories our minds create. This doesn’t mean the pain disappears, but it can feel less tangled up with everything else, making it easier to manage and creating more room for moments of relief.

Lowers stress and anxiety

When we’re in a state of worry of anxiety, our bodies tense up, and our pain levels feel amplified. Through learning to work with difficult thoughts and using the breath to soften tension, we can gently soothe our system, which often brings both physical and emotional relief.

Reduces likeliness of flare-ups

Pain and other symptoms can get in the way of daily life, often leading to us feeling dissatisfied with what we have ‘achieved’ that day. As soon as we feel well-enough, we then tend to overdo it, resulting in a flare-up or ‘crash’. Mindfulness helps us become more aware of what we do (and how we do it), helping us to stay on a more even keel. 

Does mindfulness really work for pain? 

The evidence says yes!  There is a growing body of research that supports the effectiveness of mindfulness for managing chronic pain. 

Key research findings include:

• Widespread reduction in symptoms (2023): Veehof and colleagues reviewed 30 highly controlled studies of people with pain who received mindfulness training. These people reported significantly reduced pain intensity and pain-related distress, as well as a greater acceptance and quality of life compared to those who did not take part in mindfulness training.  

• Long-term change (2021): A study by Garland and colleagues showed that participants in mindfulness programmes reported sustained reductions in pain intensity and improved emotional well-being six months after completing an eight-week mindfulness course.

• Reduced pain perception (2024): A study published by Reigner and colleagues revealed that mindfulness meditation reduced pain perception by altering pain-related brain activity. Meditation practice enhanced activation in pain modulation areas like the prefrontal cortex and decreased activity in pain-processing regions, changes which are key to helping us in our experience of pain.

 

Why choose the Breathworks approach to pain management?

Our award-winning Mindfulness for Health course is specifically designed for people with chronic pain or illness, and is highly regarded for its effectiveness in improving pain management and quality of life. The 8-week programme, based on traditional MBSR, was created by Vidyamala Burch after her own experience with chronic pain and partial paraplegia from spinal injuries. Click here to learn more about Vidyamala’s story (3-minute watch). 

The course is unique in its blend of mindfulness, self-compassion and simple reflective exercises, giving you the tools to build resilience and live more fully, even with pain. The meditations and mindfulness practices are designed to be accessible to those living with challenging symptoms, and those new to mindfulness.

• mindful awareness meditations, tailored to effectively managing pain and ill health 
• daily life exercises & strategies, including pacing, for improved quality of life
• gentle ‘mindful movements’ to increase mobility and confidence in movement

Since its launch in 2004, Mindfulness for Health has helped over 100,000 people worldwide and has gained recognition from the British Pain Society and global health boards including the NHS . The book, based on the course, won first prize in the British Medical Association Books Awards in 2014 and is on the Reading Well books on prescription scheme. Vidyamala Burch has since been named one of the most influential people in the UK with a disability, and recognised with an OBE for her dedication to pain management and wellbeing. 

Why not give one of our short guided meditations a go? 

3-Minute Breathing Space

An evidence-based approach

Feedback from our Mindfulness for Health attendees consistently shows reductions in pain intensity, improved coping skills, and reduced use of medication. 

• 4.6/5 average rating
• 94% felt better able to manage their health condition
• More than 50% reduced meditation

We now have over 10 years worth of evidence, including published academic studies, supporting our Mindfulness for Health programme. Click here to read the full impact summary. 

Stories from our course participants

“I have struggled with severe pain and weakness in my body for years and was feeling very down after my last diagnosis. The course hasn’t cured my pain, but it has cured the way I approach it. I have learnt to treat my body and others with more kindness and compassion, I am more patient with myself and now feel actual love for myself.” - Lizzie Gumley, 2023 course participant.”

"I feel more equipped to manage the various symptoms I experience due to my health condition. The biggest improvement is my mood and the calmness I feel. This has given me hope that I can change my experience of having a chronic illness." ~ 2022 course participant 

Explore more real-life stories from Mindfulness for Health attendees below:

• Laura Tivendale, lives with FND (video) 
• Annie Jones, lives with Multiple Sclerosis (blog) 
• Julie Franklin, lives with Fibromyalgia (blog) 

Why not try it for yourself? If you’re interested in learning more about mindfulness and our courses  register for a FREE Taster Session:

Register

References

1. Reigner, Dean, Wager & Ziedan (2024)

2. Garland and colleagues (2022)