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The pain-relieving benefits of a disposition toward mindfulness are most pronounced when people assess pain in hindsight and not immediately after it occurs, according to the findings of a new study led by researchers from the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) Division of Intramural Research. The study, which was funded by NCCIH, was recently published in Psychosomatic Medicine.
Research shows that mindfulness meditation helps reduce both acute and chronic pain and that its pain-relieving benefits extend to reducing fear of pain, pain avoidance, and pain catastrophizing when someone is anticipating or experiencing pain. Less is known about the possible pain-relieving benefits offered by dispositional mindfulness—the tendency to bring nonreactive attention and present-moment awareness to life’s experiences regardless of whether a person engages in mindful practices. Dispositional mindfulness is thought to protect against acute pain.
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