Guided relaxation

Provides body scans (both 20 and 30 minutes in duration) as well as additional guided meditations and a full mindfulness-based stress reduction course.

Dr. Weil is a recognized expert in integrated medicine and has a number of helpful links.

Offers information and tips to improve sleep.

Very interesting and informative site to gain more understanding of pain and treatment options.

NIH provided information about sleep and tips to improve sleep.

The American Chronic Pain Association provides pain education and pain management resources.

The U.S. Pain Foundation serves those living with chronic pain and their caregivers by providing education and resources.

Positive approaches to dealing with adversity.

Online health community that strives to inform and connect people with a wide variety of health concerns.

Free trial consists of 10 recordings of guided meditation.

Free app with guided meditation and breathing exercises; has an interesting sleep stories section.

Free app with guided meditation and breathing exercises.

Having already existed in online form, the iHeadache mobile app debuted on the App Store in early 2016. Designed by a neurologist, the app also creates reports designed specifically to help a doctor identify headache triggers and effective treatment methods.

Features a patented technology that can track and evaluate your sleep patterns using sound or vibration analysis. The app then uses the data to generate graphs and reports to help you visualize your sleep cycles. It can also wake you at the optimal time so you feel less groggy during the day.

A brief explanation of the impact of mindfulness on pain

A brief animation about how to meditate

A 5 minute mindfulness exercise from the UCLA Mindfulness Awareness Research Center

A 5 minute guided meditation with Dr. Robert E. Dinenberg

A 10 minute guided meditation with Andy Puddicome from the Headspace app

A 10 minute guided meditation with The Honest Guys

A 10 minute meditation from The Daily Calm app

Videos range from 10-40 minutes of guided meditations, body scans, etc.

For deep relaxation, body scans, and focusing attention.

Founder of Headspace app

Join in a 9-minute daily practice

Guided meditation with photos of nature.

Chronic pain may result in patterns of negative thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, which can, in turn, worsen the pain condition! The goal of CBT-CP is to target these maladaptive patterns in thinking and behaving so that alternative, more adaptive, pain coping skills can be learned.

When you get upset, you often have negative thoughts. These thoughts may happen automatically and worsen your pain and negative mood. You can feel better physically and emotionally by catching ANTs when they occur, noticing how they make you feel, and challenging them with a more balanced thought.

Thinking about how much pain you are in does not help you cope with the pain. As pain increases, thoughts may become more negative; as thoughts become more negative, pain often increases further.

Chronic pain touches many parts of your life, and each piece affects others. While some factors may increase or turn the volume up on pain, other factors may decrease it. And you can decide how to manage many of these factors.

Many with chronic pain fear that movement will increase pain or cause physical damage/injury. This often leads a decrease in activities, which leads to physical deconditioning (e.g., less strength and stamina, weight gain). Dealing with constant pain may also lead to negative thoughts and emotions such as frustration and depression. All of these factors contribute to increased avoidance of people and activities.

Some statements that can be used to replace unhelpful thoughts.

Engaging in a moderate, safe level of activity on a regular basis is how to avoid the overactivity cycle. Using the skill of pacing, where time is the guide for activity engagement, can be a helpful strategy. Pacing is about balancing activities, planning ahead, and working “smarter not harder.”

Estimate how long you can safely do one of your regular activities (e.g., yardwork, dishes) without causing a severe pain flare and set that minus one minute as your “active” goal time for the activity. Approximate the amount of “resting” time you will need in order to safely resume activity or continue your day.

A series of easy to follow steps to relax your entire body.