Shifting the Focus off Your Symptoms

The six-week program found in Feeling Better helps you to know what factors increase symptoms so that you can use this knowledge to decrease any suffering you might experience from your symptoms. The attention you pay to a troubling symptom is one of the most important factors in how you perceive it. The more you concentrate on an unpleasant or uncomfortable sensation, the worse it becomes over time.

Try this exercise right now - concentrate for a moment on your throat. Although it may not have been bothering you before, now you might feel a little tickle, or scratchiness. You may feel the need to clear your throat, and that might even make the scratchiness worse. You might even need to cough.

Many symptoms are the same way. Once you focus on the symptom, it becomes more bothersome, and the cough or scratching or squirming you might do to alleviate the tickle or pain will often only shift your attention on the symptom even more. Even worse, if you believe the symptom is caused by something serious, you will begin to think about the sensation or pain or tickle all the time. You will think about how long it lasts, whether it throbs or worsens with this movement or that, and worry about the symptom every time it happens.

We are bombarded with sensations all the time, and our brain usually screens out most of the noise. At any given time a shoe might be too tight, a piece of clothing might be rubbing wrong, the chair you are sitting in may be uncomfortable, or your glasses are heavy on your nose. Fortunately, we can ignore most of these sensations. But if you are worried about a symptom, you scrutinize your body and become hypervigilant, and this scrutiny only makes the symptom more intense.

However, anyone who suffers from chronic, uncomfortable symptoms can use this sensitivity in a positive way. You can learn to pay attention to healthy and pleasant sensations instead of distressing symptoms. With many physical states, such as muscle tension, pain, or anxiety, you have the innate ability to make the sensation better. You can capitalize on your sensitivity to become an expert at relaxation.

Let's go back to the tickling throat exercise. Now, instead of focusing on your throat, simply breathe in and out through your nose. Breathe normally, not too rapidly, and think about the air going from your nose, through your throat, into your chest and back out again. Relax and let your shoulders fall back as you continue to breathe. Imagine the moist, warm air from your lungs healing any dry scratchiness as the air comes up and out on its way to your nose. After a few more breaths, notice how you feel. Are you more relaxed? A little dizzy from the breathing? How does your throat feel?

Another skill you can learn to get your focus off your symptoms is the simple art of distraction. Since focusing on a symptom will inevitably make it worse, distracting yourself will almost always make you feel better overall. Distractions could be a diverting television show, knitting, exercise, or anything that you enjoy. The key to using these techniques to help your symptoms is to recognize how your focus worsens the symptom, and deliberately choose either relaxation or distraction to get your mind focused elsewhere. The active practice of these skills can truly diminish suffering caused by symptoms - and your attention to a symptom is only one of the factors we explore in Feeling Better.

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