Facing chronic pain can be disturbing, both mentally and physically, especially if patients don’t have the right tools to find pain relief. Nonetheless, there are several natural remedies available that can help either ease or entirely remove the pain from the body if practiced regularly. Among these remedies, yoga and meditation are two of the most flexible and adjustable to one’s routine and schedule, and can be practiced from home. Both of these practices go hand in hand and used in conjunction with one another, can provide immense relief to patients suffering from low back pain, shoulder pain, rheumatoid or osteo arthritis, gout, fibromyalgia, and more chronic pain conditions.

Here’s how yoga and meditation can aid chronic pain sufferers:

1. Breathing
Yoga and meditation help immensely with adjusting and appropriating breathing to overall bodily needs. This allows for the body to be able to adjust to the pain and make the overall body environment more relaxing. Practicing regular and slow, deep breathing can also help with overall stress release and helping rejuvenation in the body, which is a key way to ensure that pain of any sort is decreased or eliminated in the body. In fact, a leading cause of feeling immense pain in the body is stress, and releasing that stress through practiced breathing exercises, a key part of yoga, allows for relief.

2. Reducing muscle stiffness
Without a daily workout routine, it is easy for the body to become very tight, and for muscles to struggle with movement, which in turn, can cause and exacerbate existing low back pain, shoulder pain, or muscular or joint pain. However, engaging these muscle groups is a key way to be able to experience increased mobility and relieve inflammation and pain from conditions such as arthritis.

3. Increased oxygen and blood flow
Having an increased level of oxygen and blood flow throughout the body is another key element in ensuring that the body muscle groups are engaged and relaxed during non movement. Through the practice of yoga and deep breathing exercises in combination with stretches, one is able to achieve the ideal level of oxygen and blood flow to be able to limit the level of tension in the body, thus leading to lower levels of pain and severe discomfort experienced.

4. Improved mobility
By practicing any type of exercise routine regularly, the level of momentum that the body has increased significantly, and, while practicing a form of exercise such as yoga, that exercise routine can be rewarding, relaxing, and slow, rather than vigorous. However, it does still lead to increased mobility in the body, and an increased ability to see oneself with a higher metabolism rate in general, which will, in turn, help maintain a healthy weight, increase blood flow, and decrease the level of pain experienced in the body.

5. Decrease mental and physical stress
Overall, practicing yoga and meditation allows for one to experience a blissful reduction in both mental and bodily pain and stress, and will be a tremendously rewarding and beneficial practice for all of those who engage in it. Practicing yoga and deep breathing on a regular basis is a sure shot way to be able to work with one’s body to be able to decrease pain, and create a generally happier body.