The Power of Mind

For complex reasons, I had an MRI of my brain yesterday. I had it done "with and without contrast," which means they pull you out halfway through and inject a dye that interacts with the field and changes the image. For equally complex reasons, I have difficulty with injections because my body overreacts to the insult-- the injection site can hurt literally for days or even a couple weeks, pretty painfully at the beginning.

I am a meditator. I decided to put it to practical use.

After the injection, when I could feel my mind paying attention to the place, I focused all my mental energy on the left side of my body (since the injection was on the right). I felt my attention wanting to pull over to the right and feel that forearm, but I forced it to stay on the left with a continuous act of concentration. Eventually, my body only felt solid on the left side. I stayed that way for the second 30 minutes of the MRI.

And just doing that-- not latching onto the pain for half an hour-- helped tremendously! I have almost no pain there today. It's as if distracting my mind for a little while prevented the habit of feeling pain there from forming.

I'm not saying that's the only reason. I know from experience that the skill of the nurse matters a lot too-- some really jam the needle in there, while others can slip it in gently. This one seemed gentle and competent, but still, I'm convinced that the meditation helped.

Now the really interesting question is... will my mental focusing on the left show up on the film? :-)