Living with chronic pain often brings more than physical discomfort - anxiety, depression, sleep problems, and exhausting cycles of negative thoughts can all add to the burden.

Exciting news: a recent study published in the Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy evaluated our Mindfulness for Health course - developed by Vidyamala Burch - and found it creates meaningful, lasting improvements, with benefits still evident a full year later.

What the Research Found

Researchers followed 65 people with chronic pain through an 8-week Mindfulness for Health course (also known as Mindfulness-Based Pain Management or MBPM) delivered by a Breathworks-trained teacher.

Participants experienced improvements in:

• Pain intensity

• Acceptance of their pain

• Anxiety, depression, and sleep quality

• Negative thought patterns about pain

• Physical quality of life

What makes these findings particularly hopeful is that the improvements weren't just temporary. When researchers checked in at 6 months and again at 12 months, most of these positive changes had been maintained - and in some cases, had even continued to improve.

What Makes the Difference?

The researchers identified that one of the key factors predicting better quality of life one year on was greater acceptance of pain. 

This shift in relationship with symptoms is at the heart of the Mindfulness for Health approach developed by Vidyamala, who herself has lived with chronic pain for decades. As the study shows, learning to respond differently to pain, rather than fighting against it, can have lasting effects on wellbeing.