YOU CAN Relieve Your Pain

I’ve been an athlete all my life. I love playing basketball even to this day. I’m only a bit over 5’ 5� tall but when I play sports, I think I’m 6’ 5� �

At my size, it’s all about the speed and I love to outrun guys half my age!

Anyway, I’ve broken my collarbone playing football and injured my right ankle seriously playing hoops more times than I can count. I know what “injury pain� feels like, believe me. Can we do something about this and get the athlete back in competitive form faster using the powers of the mind? You bet.

Rod Carew, one of the best batters of all time in baseball, had a time where he was in a hitting slump. It seems that he had a nagging injury that was just annoying enough to make his hall-of-fame swing more like a minor leaguer’s for a time. Technically, it was supposed to be completed healed but it bothered him for quite awhile. Doubting himself and In desperation , he utilized the services of a hypnotist who helped him get over that last little hump of healing. The rest is history as he went on to win the batting crown at almost a .400 average and most valuable player award.

This is very common in athletes after getting injured. Once the body has completely healed itself, the pain can still be there. The pain experience can be wholly in memory and felt for a long time after. Phantom pain from amputees is an example of this. There could also be some secondary gain for the unconscious mind to hang onto the pain. Maybe it gives the athlete an “out� for why he/she didn’t win and thereby have an excuse for the pressure to perform.

There are many possibilities with regard to injury pain and we can deal with them at the level that is below awareness.

Using hypnosis to speed healing? Again, yes. Prevention magazine in the Sep 2000 issue reported on a study in an article entitled: “Hypnosis speeds fracture recovery� Here’s a piece of the article:

Of a dozen adults with broken ankles, half had hypnotherapy. Their bones healed quicker, they felt less pain, used fewer painkillers, and were able to walk farther and bear more weight on their injured legs than those who used casts, crutches, and painkillers alone (Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine, Mar 1999). The hypnosis group also found it easier to walk down stairs at 6 weeks and had greater mobility at 9 weeks, says study author Carol Ginandes, PhD, a clinical psychology instructor at Harvard Medical School. “The x-rays support this,” she adds. “At 6 weeks, the fractures appeared to be almost 9 weeks healed.”

You need to get back on the court, field, track, tournament, competition or game faster don’t you?