How Mindfulness Disconnects Our Sense of Self From Our Feelings of Pain

The practice of mindfulness can alter the brain’s response to pain.

Tatyana Soares/Shutterstock

Pain is universal, but we don’t all experience it the same way.

The scientific community became more deeply aware of this phenomenon in 1980 after the publication of a classic study in Science. Researchers asked Nepalese porters, accustomed to carrying large loads up the slopes of the Himalayas, to rate how painful they felt an electric shock to be. When their responses were compared with those of Westerners on the same trek, the porters reported their pain to be far less severe than did their Western counterparts.

However, both groups exhibited the same neurological response to the pain stimulus—what differed was how they perceived it.

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The authors of the study attributed the difference in pain sensitivity to a “culturally imposed stoicism,” citing the Buddhist spiritual exercises of the porters as an important modulatory factor.

Mindfulness—a key component of the Buddhist spiritual tradition of the Nepalese porters—is “the awareness that emerges through paying attention on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally to the unfolding of experience moment by moment.” Increased scientific interest in the practice of mindfulness over the past few decades has given researchers insight into how it alters the brain’s response to pain.

Untangling the Self From Pain

A study published in Pain laid out a consistent finding.

Two groups of participants were asked to rate how painful a heat stimulus felt before and after listening to a guided mindfulness meditation or a neutral audiobook. Those in the mindfulness group reported significantly lower pain intensity.

Crucially, the MRI analyses demonstrated that the mindfulness group showed decreased connectivity between pain processing centers and the precuneus and ventromedial prefrontal cortices—areas of the brain involved in the construction and maintenance of the self.

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The authors stated that mindfulness meditation exerts its pain-relieving effect, in part, by “uncoupling” the neural connection between our sense of self and incoming painful stimuli. In other words, mindfulness meditation works by disconnecting our experience of pain from who we feel ourselves to be.

Imagine standing too close to a fire and taking a few steps back. You’ll still feel the heat but not as intensely. Mindfulness can train our brains to put distance between itself and pain.

Bhante Saranapala, a renowned mindfulness instructor, public speaker, and author, told The Epoch Times that mindfulness meditation helps us differentiate our enduring sense of self from the transient phenomena we might be clinging to.

“What happens with meditation is that it prepares us to let go of what we’re holding on to,” he said. “If you can let go of your pain, then this letting go is the process that brings you the relief.”

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The findings reported in Pain help show that “letting go” is not just wishful thinking but encoded at the neural level, leading to lasting physical changes in the brain.

These changes seem to deepen with practice. Previous research has found that more experienced mindfulness practitioners exhibit even fewer connections between the brain regions involved in pain processing and the sense of self than their less experienced counterparts.

How to Practice Mindfulness

Technological advances in brain scanning since the 1980 Nepalese porter study have helped researchers understand how mindfulness works in real-time, allowing practitioners insight into what’s happening when they practice it.

Elisha Goldstein, a clinical psychologist, author, and founder of a global mindfulness-based therapeutic coaching program, approaches mindfulness as a skill that can be learned.

“Like anything, when you give it intentional practice and repetition, your brain can begin to memorize it,” he told The Epoch Times.

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Even brief training in mindfulness practice can have a lasting effect on our predisposition for mindfulness. One group of researchers found that just three to four 20-minute mindfulness sessions increased dispositional mindfulness by 13 percent on average, leading to sustained decreases in pain perception and rewiring at the neural level.

One of the core components of mindfulness is a focus on the breath—something Saranapala calls “the art of breathing.”

“I always encourage people to breathe like a dolphin,” he said. “Whenever the dolphin faces an adverse situation, it comes to the surface, takes a deep breath, and then relaxes. With that relaxation, it goes back to the adverse situation and helps others.”

The focus on breathing is what grounds us in something permanent, according to Goldstein.

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“Through mindful breathing, you realize that your body becomes stable and that your mind becomes calm and tranquil. It is this tranquility, it is this stability, it is this calmness and relaxation of the mind and body, that brings you the healing.”

He recommends starting a practice with attainable goals.

“If someone tells me they can do 10 minutes a day, I tell them to start off with five. The key here is really consistency. We want to make sure that it feels doable so that we’ll actually do it throughout the week,” Goldstein said.

One way he does this is by tying mindfulness to another task.

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“Sometimes while dropping my kids off somewhere, I might pause for several minutes in my car and actually do it right there, or I’ll often take a little bit of time to practice before I get to my computer,” Goldstein said.

He also recommends joining a structured program with a teacher and a community, saying that this is the best way to integrate these practices and facilitate learning.

Modern neuroscience has helped us to understand that the pain resistance found in the Nepalese porters is a state of mind that, if cultivated, has the potential to rewire our brains and disconnect us further from our pain.

“The pain itself is impermanent and is not under my control,” Saranapala said. “What’s not under my control cannot be me. What’s not me—I have to let go.”