Boost Your Lifestyle to Combat Chronic Pain: 3 Tips for Immediate Relief by Jackie Waters

Boost Your Lifestyle to Combat Chronic Pain: 3 Tips for Immediate Relief by Jackie Waters

People who live with chronic pain know that every aspect of daily living is made more difficult. Simply getting up and out of bed in the morning is a feat for those who are in pain all the time. Yet, there are steps chronic pain sufferers can take at home to minimize their pain; we share tips for boosting your lifestyle to combat your chronic pain here, in the hopes that each day becomes more manageable for you.

1. Change Your Surroundings

Chronic pain may be caused by stress [1] and emotional issues in addition to physical injury. People with chronic stress often have chronic pain because their muscles are tense and constricted, which leads to fatigued and inefficient muscles over time. Since many people with chronic pain spend a great deal of time at home, making changes [2] to your surroundings at home is an effective way to reduce your stress and minimize your pain.

One of the first things you should do to lower stress levels and minimize pain is declutter your home. Studies show that clutter reduces your ability to focus and process information well. By concentrating on getting rid of the clutter, you will feel better by donating items you no longer need and knowing that you have more open spaces to enjoy at home. You won’t feel boxed in or trapped by your belongings, and you will enjoy having more natural light entering your home.

After you declutter, work on making your home an environment that relieves stress, boosts your mood, and minimizes your pain. Raise window blinds and pull back curtains to allow more sunlight [3] into your home or replace dark, heavy drapes with sheer window coverings. Sunlight helps in vitamin D production and enhances your mood and energy, regulates melatonin levels, suppresses MS symptoms, and helps treat skin diseases.

Painting your walls certain colors [4] also helps reduce stress and leads to less chronic pain. Calming shades include lavender, pale gray, cool blue, grey-blue, aqua, pale pink, and beige. Many people opt for pale gray and pink walls and add pops of the other soothing colors with throw pillows, blankets, bed coverings, lamps, and chairs. If you have a favorite color, add it to your décor to improve your mood, reduce your stress, and minimize your pain.

2. Plant a Garden

If gardening evokes images of painful lower backs and knees, change your thinking about planting a garden. Gardeners enjoy physical and mental health benefits, so you should consider planting a garden in your backyard or starting an herb or windowsill garden in your kitchen. One study shows that gardening [5] is better at relieving stress than other leisure activities. Not only does gardening improve depression symptoms, but the benefits of gardening continue even after people stop working in their gardens. One researcher also found that gardening improves cognitive function and mood and works in the same way that antidepressants do. Better yet, gardening puts people into contact with good bacteria that improve the immune system and reduce inflammation, which leads to chronic pain, heart disease, diabetes, and depression.

Gardening also gets people in the fresh air and sunshine and increases heart rate to get your blood flowing. This means that gardening benefits us much in the way that low-impact exercise does, yet it is not as taxing as other exercises that people with chronic pain struggle to do.

An additional benefit of gardening is that you have healthy and nutritious foods at your fingertips. Eating better spurs weight loss, and people with chronic pain find that shedding a few pounds eases some of the pain, especially in their joints.

3. Eat Anti-Inflammatory Foods

Speaking of eating better, you can go one step further and eat anti-inflammatory foods [6]. Some foods contribute to inflammation that causes joint pain. But, if you drink at least 64 ounces of water a day and add fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, beans and legumes, fish, olive oil, and walnuts to your diet you will combat inflammation. Other foods containing healthy fats, such as avocado, reduce inflammation and minimize pain as well.

You may find that certain lifestyle changes, such as changing your surroundings, starting a garden, and eating anti-inflammatory foods, makes it easier for you to manage your chronic pain. Making small changes to your lifestyle could make a world of difference.