[jakeway]

Interesting, I've done something similar for headaches. I imagine the pain as a sort of toy in a claw machine and then try to extract the pain with the claw. Like you said it doesn't always work but surprised it has ever worked.

[krackers]

From this perspective, techniques such as Reiki are not that surprising, they may be methods of more effectively exploiting this mind-body connection: all of these techniques usually have in common some sort of visualization, and learning to associate certain colors/signs/symbols with desired effects. (Although the fact that it seems to have effects even when the practitioner differs from the recipient means there's probably more to it than just that.)

[Nevermark]

I let myself focus on pain as just a sensory signal, like pressure or a focused sense of touch.

By completely welcoming the pain signal as information I can often quiet the discomfort component.

I assume that since pain functions by being a signal to avoid, completely reversing the avoidance interferes with its normal function - in a good way. Would love to know how that was actually playing out in my circuits