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Introduction 8
Understanding Your Pain 10
What is Pain? 12
The Pain Experience 15
Meet the Nervous System 18
Central Sensitization 20
Central Habituation 23
The Stress Effect 25
Help Your Body to Help Itself 28
Inflammation is Good for You 30
The Path to Recovery 32
Keeping a Pain Journal 35
Positive Attitudes 38
Turning the Mental Key 40
Exercise: Unlock Your Potential 43
Family Resilience 44
Mind Over Matter 46
Affirmations 49
Making It Happen 51
Exercise: Problem Solving 55
Finding Peace 56
Release Your Muscles to Release Your Mind 58
Exercise: Progressive Muscular Relaxation 61
Exercise: Autogenic Training 62
Better Breathing 64
Exercise: Breathing to Relax-Relaxing to Breathe 67
Exercise: Pursed-lip Breathing-Encouraging the Diaphragm 69
Exercise: The 7-11 Stress-buster 71
The Power of Meditation 72
Exercise: Introduction to Mindfulness 73
Exercise: Repeat Yourself Calm 75
Exercise: Inspired Meditation 77
The Mind's Eye 78
Exercise: Washing Away Pain 79
Exercise: Visualizing Your Pain 81
Healing Sounds 82
Exercise: Body Tuning 83
Sleeping with Pain 84
Bodywork and Rehabilitation 90
Healing Touch 92
Exercise: A Massage to Relieve Backache 96
Trigger Points 99
Positional Release 101
Exercise: Finding a Position of Ease 102
Stretching 103
Exercise: The Triangle Posture 106
Staying in Shape 108
Exercise: Take a Balanced Approach 111
Complementary Therapies 112
Energy and Harmony 114
Light and Colour 118
Hydrotherapy 120
Exercise: Constitutional Hydrotherapy 121
Nature's Bounty 123
Healing Scents 126
Eating Well 128
Inflammation and Diet 130
Other Diets and Pain 134
The Exclusion Zone 135
Supplements 141
Types of Pain 142
Reading the Signs 144
Common Pains 147
A Pain-by-Pain Directory 149
Headaches 149
Jaw, Face and Tooth Pain 152
Exercise: A Triathlon for Your Jaw 153
Neck and Shoulder Pain 154
Exercise: Rebalance Your Posture 155
Arm and Hand Pain 156
Exercise: "Tennis Elbow" Relief 157
Backache 158
Exercise: Stretching Your Back 160
Chest Pain 161
Bladder, Prostate and Abdominal Pain 162
Gynecological and Childbirth Pain 164
Bodywide Pain 166
A Work in Progress 168
Further Reading 170
References 170
Index 172
Picture Acknowledgments 176
Overview