PapaRon, what you've described sounds fantastic. I think I'd like to try something like that, along with the DTM, but how to find someone good is a whole nother problem in itself.

I'm glad you've found something that significant. It's amazing to me how the mind works and how much control you can actually have, given the right atmosphere and circumstance.

One thing I've always done in the past (I don't remember where I learned this) is something to rid yourself of stress right before going to sleep.

As you're laying in bed in the dark preparing to sleep, you lay on your back and imagine that your brain is an attic. Laying all over the attic floor are all your stresses and worries. Also in the attic are two trunks and they are open. You imagine taking a broom and sweeping up the stresses and worries into a dust pan, but you have to decide which ones go where. One trunk is trash and will be emptied so you never think about it again. In there, you put the worries and troubles that you really have no control over and then close and lock the lid and empty it. The other trunk is for saving whatever is in it for later. You put the problems and stresses in that trunk and lock the lid, but you can always come back to that trunk later when you need to pull out the problem to deal with it.

It's odd I know, but it really can help, just like your meditation.

Cath

total pain management. Years ago, the vital signs taken by doctors including the BP, Pulse Rate, how you are breathing.... Today, they have added a new vital sign, your pain level! That has not be distributed to all doctors, but it will be sooner than we think.
I have found that the conventional ways in dealing with pain can get very complex. People can use other means, ie Alcohol to make them forget about their need for pain medications, then they take pain medications to forget about the pain. The underlying source is still PAIN. Its something that is real and needs to be managed. Too many people looked at pain is being this abstract thing... You can put your arms around a broken leg, a black eye, a swollen finger, but how do you put your arm around pain. What is it, where is and when does it come?
The experience I had today with meditation was very frightening. I am happy that I came through it with the therapist and we had good talks about it... But then I drove about 45 minutes to meet my wife. I was shaking...
Its like I saw the beast the demon, and he was coming right after me, not just in how it feels, but now he has taken on an image, that black clenched had with two red eyes. All I know was that it was coming after me and coming strong. By the time I met up with my wife, she took one look at me and knew something had happened. I broke down, because I was SCARED. But as I told my therapist, I will win, I have beaten this beast back so many times. Its just now that the physical part has been played over and over and I know what needs to be done, he has taken it to another level, the inner emotional level. The beast is not brave enough to stand right up and front of me to take me down, bu instead he works his ways into my inner thoughts.
This will be a challenge, sometimes I think a bigger challenge then I had dealing only with physical pain.

But I remain positive....I dont need the GhostBusters, but instead I have a team of ChronicBeastBusters....
I will win, I will come out on top.

This is just the beginning of these experiences and I have a lot to learn about meditation and how it can totally help those in pain. I've always been a firm believe in that our minds are the strongest part of us we have. We have two choices, we can let something, someone take over our minds and dictate how we live, OR we can become stronger and learn how to control our minds so that it works as our best ally.

I've learned a lot today, so much. I want to learn more about this more and more. Initially I need some catalyst to get me into the right meditation frame, but then eventually, I will be able to do it myself.

Hang on, I am going for a ride