Intentionally Cultivate Gratitude to Manage Chronic Pain |
This is the second post in a 2-part series.
In the first post in this series, Dr. Joel Jin discussed the basics of chronic pain and some key misunderstandings about it.
In this blog post, Dr. Joel Wong will discuss gratitude. Specifically, he will define gratitude and explain why “just be thankful” is not what we mean when we say gratitude is an important component of psychological coping in response to chronic pain.
Paul Youngbin Kim: How might the expression of gratitude combat painful experiences? What are we not saying when we claim that gratitude is important and helpful for chronic pain?
Joel Wong: For those of you experiencing chronic pain, gratitude could be a vital coping strategy. One study of older adults with chronic lower back pain found that the more grateful these folks were, the less stress, sleep disturbance, and depression they........