Loving-kindness meditation has been used for centuries in the Buddhist tradition to develop love and transform anger into compassion. As the emotional milieu is known to impact chronic pain, Jim and Kimberly Carson, developed a randomized controlled study to test a novel 8-week loving-kindness program for chronic low back pain patients. The loving-kindness meditation program resulted in significant improvements in pain and psychological distress. Multilevel analyses of daily diary data showed more loving-kindness practice on a given day was related to lower pain that day, and lower anger the next day. Shifting the internal landscape from anger and frustration to one of love and kindness reduced the suffering of chronic low back pain.

See the full article here: Loving Kindness For Chronic Pain

James W. Carson, PhD1, Francis J. Keefe, PhD1, Thomas R. Lynch, PhD1, Kimberly M. Carson, MPH1, Veeraindar Goli, MB1, Anne Marie Fras, MD1, Steven R. Thorp, PhD2

1Duke University Medical Center and2VA San Diego Healthcare System