As we begin a new year I always look back at the past year to remind myself of all that I’m grateful for.  This is a simple process for me as I complete a daily gratitude journal of 5-10 specific things I’m grateful for each day.  At the end of each month I review all of the days and pick my top 20 Gratitudes for that month.  Now as the year ends I review each month’s top 20 and pick the top 20 things I’m grateful for that year.

You may be wondering; what does gratitude lists have to do with chronic pain management?  A LOT!  When people live with chronic pain on a daily basis they can become discouraged, frustrated, and very depressed.  One of the tools I use and teach to my patients is to look at what they’re grateful for in every situation. 

I also want to encourage people to focus on what they want—not what they don’t want.  So instead of the focus being I don’t want to hurt or live with this unbearable pain; I encourage people to instead focus on enjoying what they have and what they are grateful for.

Of course chronic pain management is not that simple but I believe that focusing on gratitude is a necessary component for any one living with chronic pain.  To learn about some roadblocks for effective chronic pain management and ways to overcome adversity please read my latest article Overcoming Obstacles for Effective Chronic Pain Management that you can download for free on our Ariticles page.

You can learn more about the Addiction-Free Pain Management® System at our website www.addiction-free.com. If you are working with people in chronic pain and want to learn how to develop a plan for managing their pain and coexisting psychological disorders including depression or addiction effectively please go to our Publications page and check out my book the Managing Pain and Coexisting Disorders: Using the Addiction-Free Pain Management® System. To purchase this book please Click Here.

To listen to a radio interview I did conducted by Mary Woods for her program One Hour at a Time please Click Here to go to listen to this interview.

To read the latest issue of Chronic Pain Solutions Newsletter please Click here. If you want to sign up for the newsletter, please Click here and input your name and email address. You will then recieve an autoresponse email that you need to reply to in order to finalize enrollment.