Living with pain can take away from your life because you may not be able to participate fully in activities, especially those that involve loved ones. This makes it crucial for you to find a way to free yourself of this pain and enjoy more freedom in life. Read on to see five ways in which you can do this that are practical and will actually work.

1. Reduce Your Stress Levels

Stress can cause you a number of issues, one of which is worsening chronic pain. You can therefore try and manage your pain by actively reducing your stress levels. If you manage to do this, you will have improved both your mental and physical health. If you can, find a hobby that relaxes you and spend some time on it every day. You could also listen to soothing music or go to a place where you will feel relaxed and not under pressure. Don’t reach for medication just yet because out of the 20.5 million Americans aged 12 or older who had a substance use disorder in 2015, a whopping two million had a substance use disorder that involved prescription pain relievers while 591,000 of them had a substance abuse disorder that involved heroin. You therefore don’t want to put yourself at risk of suffering from such issues in the future.

2. Try Breathing Techniques

Another way to deal with chronic pain is to try breathing techniques to make the pain manageable. You first need to try and focus on your breathing. Set aside some time when you will be alone and undisturbed so that you can focus well. Dim the lights or turn them off altogether and recline in a seat where you will be comfortable. Slow your breathing down so that you can set a basis for the rest of the exercise. Take slow, deep breaths and hold them for a while before releasing them. If you do this consistently for a week or two, you may soon become good at it and reap the benefits that come with it.

3. Get a Massage

You could also head to a professional on a regular basis for deep, relaxing massages. These can help with all kinds of chronic pain, from back pain to neck pain and more. When done by an expert who is trained in the right techniques, a massage is the best way to enjoy both relaxation and some degree of pain relief at the same time. There is a specific massage for different issues, so for tears, sprains, and tears, which are the most common type of injury sustained during work in a whopping 30.7% of documented injuries, there will be a massage to help with them.

4. Reduce Your Intake of Alcohol

Alcohol consumption is not only bad for your health, but it’s also a potential cause for worse pain. It worsens pain by making sleep patterns problematic and unpredictable to a large extent. This makes it harder to get enough sleep of a good quality that could help you relax and get the best recovery for the pain that you may be dealing with.

5. Do Gentle Exercise

Finally, with a directive from your health care professional, you should start to do gentle exercises. There are some exercise routines that are great for helping fix certain types of pain. One of the chronic pain conditions that could be improved with exercise is back pain, which 80% of Americans will suffer from at one point of their lives or another. Don’t be tempted to go overboard as this could leave you in a worse condition than you started out with.

Try these five methods to get rid of your pain and enjoy a better quality of life as a result. Even if you don’t remove it completely, you will be sure to reduce it to a considerable degree.