Researchers continue to unearth more and more benefits of yoga and meditation. If stress reduction, lowered risk of illness, and better sleep weren’t enough to convince you to roll out that yoga mat, researchers have now found that yoga and meditation can help relieve chronic pain. 

Researchers conducted their experiment in a rural area, where many patients suffering from chronic pain were not receiving the medical care they needed. After guiding the patients through yoga and meditation sessions for eight weeks, researchers found that patients were experiencing lower levels of pain and also had an improved outlook on their condition. 

The treatment not only reduced pain, but also helped patients form a more positive perception of their condition and lower feelings of pain, depression, and disability. A big part of chronic pain is the mental exhaustion of coping with pain on a daily basis. Yoga and meditation offer critical mental health support which in turn contributes to positive physical symptom relief. 

Researcher Cynthia Marske, D.O., an osteopathic physician, told MindBodyGreen, “Mindfulness-based meditation and yoga can help restore both a patient’s mental and physical health and can be effective alone or in combination with other treatments such as therapy and medication.”