Pain - Mild to Moderate
by
Dennis Gersten, M.D.
Over the course of many years I developed a protocol that proved to be most
useful in treating pain. The imagery technique had seventeen steps by the
time I had it all worked out (See Atlantis, Oct. '89: Gersten). The technique
worked very well with all kinds of pain.
But I radically streamlined the technique in January 1991 during Operation
Desert Storm. I put together a POW Survival Guide that was distributed
to some of the Allied Troops to help them cope in the event of being captured.
As part of the Survival Guide I wanted to teach our troops a very simple pain
technique that they could easily learn and be able to utilize in the event that
they were captured. And that meant that the seventeen step pain protocol I had
put together just wouldn't do. So I threw out fourteen of the seventeen steps
and came up with a technique that has proven to be more effective than the long
protocol. Here's the short form, the three step technique:
1. Focus your attention on your pain, discomfort or nausea. Imagine your
pain has a certain size, shape and color. What does it feel like? Is it rough
or smooth? Does it stay in one place or move around?
2. Allow the pain to turn to liquid. It has the same size, shape and color
as before, but now it's liquid.
3. Roll that liquid down to the nearest arm or leg and let it flow out of
your fingertips or toes. Watch it as it flows out of the room, out of the house
(or hospital), down the street. Just watch it and see where it goes. Maybe it
flows all the way down to the ocean.
If your pain was 100% before we started this exercise, what percent is it now?
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