Many disciplines are designed to program the subconscious. But except for the method used to derive visualization statements, no technique honors the subconscious as a teacher by first asking it what it believes will work. This distinctive approach may be very helpful for pain relief.

Visualization statements represent the specific language that your subconscious wants you to read back to it to help ease your pain. Theyre simple and are targeted directly at the main factors that could bring you relief.

You can obtain these statements by learning how to communicate directly with your own subconscious mind. The process is straightforward and can be done at home by working with a facilitator over the telephone. You you need no special skills and no previous experience in working with the subconscious.

Programming the Subconscious from the Outside

It's long been known that the subconscious can be programmed. This is done through hypnosis, biofeedback, relaxation therapy, affirmation, and other techniques that cause it to believe a given assertion. For a comparison of ten different ways to ease your pain using the mind-body connection, please see the free report available from the Web site mentioned at the end of this article. Click on the link, go to the Home page, and download the free report.

Because the subconscious makes literal associations, most mind-body methods attempt to shape it from the outside by giving it suggestions that originate in the conscious mind--yours or a therapist's.

A Distinctive Approach

In contrast, to derive visualization statements you and a facilitator begin by asking your subconscious what suggestions it needs to hear in order to relieve your pain. You then feed the suggestions back to the subconscious by reading them or saying them from memory a set number of times per day.

That is, the suggestions that you ultimately give it do not come from the outside, but rather are elicited from the subconscious itself.

Working from the Inside

We use this approach because the subconscious controls the involuntary functions of the body, one of which is pain. It's possible to gain many insights by asking the subconscious to impart its knowledge, to let us know what we must do to alleviate the pain. We can then use that knowledge to help the subconscious do its work.

This approach may be helpful in addressing back pain or pain in other extremities, arthritis pain, fibromyalgia pain, or neuropathic pain (nerve pain).

In our relationship with the subconscious, it's useful to consider that it's the teacher and we're the students. The value of what it has to teach us about pain relief can be priceless.