Handmade Pain Relief

There’s an urgent need for handmade pain relief.

Here’s Why

Have you, or maybe someone you love, ever been addicted to prescription pain relievers?

With over 10 million people in America abusing or misusing opioid pain relievers every year, you likely might.

Sadly, more than 50,000 opioids users will die this year alone.

According to Opioid Epidemic Statistics from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which officially declared this a public health emergency as far back as 2017…

• 48,006 people overdosed on opioids in 2020.
• 3.8% of American adults abuse opioids each year.
• At least 71.8% and as many as 80% of overdose deaths involve opioids.
• Overdose (OD) deaths involving opioids increased 519.38% from 1999 to 2019.
• 68.0% of all OD deaths are attributed to synthetic opioids.
• Fentanyl and fentanyl analogs are a factor in 19.8% of all overdose deaths.

Opioid death rates continue to rise.

Opioid pain reliever abuse, which is often brought on by their addictive properties, has made the news on a regular basis of late. Quite possibly victimized someone you know personally.

It’s a huge, huge problem.

Here’s a list of the most commonly prescribed opioids to better understand what we’re talking about:

• Codeine.
• Morphine.
• Hydromorphone (Dilaudid).
• Hydrocodone with acetaminophen.
• Oxycodone (Oxaydo, Roxicodone, Roxybond).
• Oxycodone with acetaminophen (Percocet)

These high-powered pain relievers can pack some serious high-powered side effects as well:

• Drowsiness (sedation).
• Dizziness.
• Nausea and vomiting.
• Constipation.
• Physical dependence — Dependence sets in from withdrawal symptoms which occur when opioids are discontinued or decreased.
• Tolerance — taken over time, opioids require increasing dosages to experience the equivalent pain relief.
• Respiratory depression — Can occur in healthy people, especially at higher doses. People with COPD, asthma, or other lung conditions can be at greater risk of fatal respiratory impairment.

Opioids, the stronger class of pain relievers, are not the only troublesome pain relievers.

Common over-the-counter pain relief products, such as aspirin and acetaminaphen, come with their own inherent dangers. Especially when you factor in their long term use.

Typically safe, aspirin containing medicines can wreak havok on your stomach lining, causing upset, burns, and possibly ulcers.

The other common pain reliever, acetaminophen, used in popular products like Tylenol, can cause side effects such as

• nausea
• vomiting
• constipation
• kidney and liver disfunctions

When you combine all the prescription pain relievers as one class, it’s easy to see that we assume a lot of risk when we automatically reach for that bottle of pills to banish our pain away. Often deadly consequences.

Understand too, that these drugs only block the pain. They don’t fix anything.
They merely chemically interrupt the pain signal going to our brain.

What if there was another, 100% natural way to block the pain, with ZERO negative side effects?

That would be good, right?

Consider A Better Solution

Use Your Hands To Control The Pain!

I refer to it as “Handmade Pain Relief“.

Hear me out.

This isn’t some woo-woo, laying hands on, or massaging our pain away idea.
It doesn’t involve the ancient Chinese art of Reflexology either.

I’m not putting any of these methods down. They all have their place and effectiveness. But the downside is they require the services of a trained professional to be effective. And those services can be expensive and not always available when we need them.

The “Handmade Pain Relief” I will describe for you, requires only you. And no formal training.

It has been around for thousands of years. Accessible to the rich and poor without discrimination.

It is based upon The Pain Relieving Power of Focused Attention to Detailed Work.

Artists, musicians, craftsmen and athletes have known about this forever, though it’s seldom talked about.

Mainly I think, because it requires no effort on their part. It just sort of happens as a natural byproduct of what they do.

Some refer to it as a “flow” state.

Flow occurs when the full power of your conscious mind is focused on some particular task. It is usually accompanied by all the other senses being muted. Environmental noises are not heard. Visual distractions go unnoticed. Aches and pains in our body are not felt.

Learning a New Skill Can Divert All Your Brain’s Attention

• Think of when you had to thread your first needle.
• Or go way back to tying your shoes for the first time.
• Musicians easily fall into this state when learning new songs, or chords, or fingering patterns.
• Artists busily at work on a sketch, a painting, or sculpture can easily access this state.
• Woodworkers and other craftman intent on some detail slip into flow without effort as well.
• Dancers, knitters, singers, runners, computer game players too.

Almost any activity can produce this state when you are fully involved. Especially when using your hands.

How much pain relief?

Ken was a Baltimore Cop before he fell down a ravine in pursuit of a suspect. His spine was fractured, leaving him paralyzed, in a wheelchair, and in near constant pain. He loved photography, and especially creatively editing those photos in Photoshop.

When I interviewed him for a project I was doing on the health benefits of photography, he told me, “The only time I get total relief from the pain is when I’m fully immersed in editing my photos in Photoshop”.

Focused attention can be that powerful.

Remember, pain drugs only block the pain signals from getting to the brain. They don’t fix anything.

Hyper-Focused attention, total concentration, ALSO keeps the pain signals from getting to the brain. Because what we are doing, at that point in time, is taking up all of the brain’s concentration power.

Our project, be it drawing, painting, knitting, sewing, making pie dough, playing the piano or guitar, has hijacked all of the brain’s attention. Thereby, leaving no available space for it to “feel” the pain. It can’t “hear” the pain signal. It’s busy!

Hands just happen to be the best tool our body provides for hijacking the brain.

For two reasons

1. The density of neural pathways which run from brain to hand, which allow us to use those fine muscle motor skills found only in the hands. Detailed, fine motor skilled work requires a tremendous amount of brainpower, concentration.
2. Detailed work with our hands also requires our eyes to be in detailed focus and tracking mode. Even resting-state eyes consume 20-30% of the body’s total energy! This increased focus and tracking activity is called “task-related activity” and is even more energy-intensive than resting state activity.

Intricate hand tasks, and especially intricate hand tasks which require new learning, consume enormous amounts of concentration and energy. Between the eyes, arms, and hands – nearly all of the brain’s concentration powers are occupied. Leaving no attention left to “feel” the pain.

Our brain is quite complex. But often easily fooled.

Every day we see images on 2 dimensional paper, yet we see the image as 3-D because of the perspective and shading.

Neurological science has also demonstrated that the human brain is incapable of focusing on two things at once.

When you bring all your attention to some hand project you are working on, you in essence, tell the brain, “Hey, focus over here now, I’m trying to learn this new guitar riff!”

So it puts away the “pain focus” and concentrates its full power on making your fingers play the music.

The amazing thing about us humans is, we can feel the effect of things just by thinking of them.

Even though nothing has touched, or affected our body in any physical way, we can still sense stuff as if it were there.

As a fun experiment, experience this now for yourself…

Close Your eyes. Oh no, wait, don’t.

Keep reading!

Imagine, you’re standing beside me now in the kitchen. I take out my super sharp knife and cut several large slices into a big fresh juicy lemon. You instantly smell the fragrant lemony aroma. Your mouth begins to salivate.

I cut one big juicy lemon slice in half, and ask you to insert it into your mouth and chew.

You now place that big, juicy, sour lemon slice into your mouth and immediately sense the tangy sour juices cascading over your tongue. Your jaw instantly clenches at the back. Your mouth muscles quickly tense up. Your eyes are squinting now and you’re making that familiar lemon sour puss.

Did you feel it? Most do.
Even though there’s not a lemon in sight. Our brain and our body knows. We can hijack or control our body with only our thoughts, with our brain.

Let’s try a more practical example that deals with your pain, wherever it may be in your body now.

It doesn’t matter where for this purpose. Remember, pain is just a signal, a communication, a current, a flow, running through your body.

Drugs, cut off or block the current, the flow, from reaching your brain.

So that’s what we want to do to eliminate pain. Block the flow. Cut the communication.

Only we want to do it naturally. Without the drugs.

Consider these examples. Really think them through as if they were something happened right now to you.

Would you notice your pain in the moment, if…

• The pan suddenly burst into flames as you are cooking
• Publishers Clearing House was at the door with your big check
• Your daughter just put her newborn baby in your arms
• You looked thru the peephole and your high school crush was at the door
• You dropped a big can of soup on your bare toe
• Your child just tumbled down the stairs and was crying
• You fell into the pool
• Your spouse came up from behind and put their icy cold hands on your neck

In each of these moments, your brain would be so focused on addressing the immediate situation, you would no longer feel your old pain.

• You would rush to put the pan fire out.
• You would smile and maybe jump for joy at your new-found fortune
• Your heart would fill with love for your new grandchild
• Your heart and brain would be filled with wonder at your lost-love come knocking
• The new intense pain in your toe would hijack attention from any other pains
• You would race to the scene to assess and comfort your fallen child
• You’d be overtaken by that “jump in the pool” shock of sudden temperature change
• The shock from those icy cold hands on your neck would contract your body and raise your shoulders

In each of these cases, the current drama steals your brain’s focus from any other pains (and even positive feelings) in your body and focuses your full concentration power on the new drama.

You might be thinking, “OK, but these are quick incidents”.

Temporary diversions. Like putting Bengay or some other cream on your sore joints. The relief goes away quickly.

Indeed they are. But these examples show in the clearest possible way we can all relate to – that our pain CAN be taken away without drugs.

It IS possible.

So how do we get longer lasting pain relief?

We need look no further than the end of our arms for the answer.

Hello hand! The body’s secret pain reliever was hiding in plain sight all along.

How and Why The Hand Works Best To Relieve Pain

When the detailed activities of your hands “steal’ the full attentiveness of the brain, it no longer “hears” the pain signal. So you don’t feel the pain.

When you are totally concentrated on a project, hopefully doing something you thoroughly enjoy, you can go for hours and hours without feeling pain. Most who get “in the flow” will tell you how hours pass and it seemed like minutes. They “get lost in” their work.

Here are 13 great hand activities to fully engage the hands and brain for pain relief:

• Play Piano
• Play Guitar
• Jewelry Making
• Crocheting
• Knitting
• Learn To Draw
• Learn To Paint
• Woodworking
• Stained Glass
• Sewing
• Embroidery
• Model Building
• Origami
• Woodcarving
• Sculpting
• Pottery Making
• Candle Making

Imagine, just by immersing yourself in a fun activity, you can make the pain go away. Without drugs!
Without nasty side effects. Without dying!

Now, I’m not a doctor, nor a trained medical professional of any sort, so don’t consider this medical advice. It’s not. And I’m not saying we should all chuck those drugs and take up guitar. Obviously, these medications provide real benefits to people in need when used properly, under a doctor’s supervision.

What I am saying, is that whenever possible, in order to help stem the tide of this Opioid Epidemic, and to minimize our risk of bodily harm and death from taking any medications, it’s important to know there are alternative methods to block our pain.

As a musician and artist, I can tell you from personal experience, that whenever I’m fully engaged in my projects, time floats by, the environment disappears, my head is cleared from all cares, and I feel no pain.

Plus, in the end, I have a new song I can play. Or a painting to show. Or a photograph I’m proud of.

If I just took a pill for every ill, I’d have nothing to show for my pain.

Let your hands lift your pain.

Handmade Pain Relief – why not try it and see!

Listed below are 13 of the top online learning platforms where you’ll find courses teaching nearly any skill your hands would like to try and more!

Udemy.com
Coursera.org
Masterclass.com
Teachable.com
Pluralsight.com
LinkedIn Learning.com
Rocket Languages.com
Rosetta Stone.com
Udacity.com
Skillshare.com
The Princeton Review.com
Thinkific.com
Domestika.com

I know this was a long post. But I think an important one.

Maybe a life-saving one.

Please indulge me this one last thought, if you will…

We human beings are the only thing on this planet blessed with endless powers of creation. Doesn’t it just make sense that we should use those powers to their fullest? Especially when doing so, allows us to feel no pain.

“Create, Create. It makes you feel great!”

“Bene Vivere!”

Bob Elderbob Schwarztrauber

NOTE: Some of the links on this page may lead to products or services to which I have an affiliate relationship. Meaning, these sights may send me a few coin for referring you to their website should you invest in something there. Rest assured this does not affect your costs in any way. And I would never risk my good name by referring you to vendors unless I had full confidence in them.