Meditate your pain away

Zen meditation – a centuries-old practice that helps people gain mental, physical and emotional balance – can keep pain at bay, according to Universite de Montreal researchers.

"Slower breathing certainly coincided with reduced pain and may influence pain by keeping the body in a relaxed state. While previous studies have found that the emotional aspects of pain are influenced by meditation, we found that the sensation itself, as well as the emotional response, is different in meditators,” Grant said.

The ultimate result was that Zen meditators experienced an 18 per cent reduction in pain intensity.