b'Life with MSUsing Technology to Help Manage PainBy Joanne FortunatoPain is emotionally and physically debilitating. ManagingpainwithMSiscomplexand daunting. While the typical western medicine approach to pain can yield great results, theregood place to begin your wellness journey. It arealternativesthatcansupplementyouris maintained by experts, easy to navigate, treatment plan without the cost and side-effectsand current. Whether you are a beginner, have from medication. Often complementary andonly dabbled with wellness tools, or you just alternative medicine tools can improve yourwant to deepen your practice, you will nd quality of lifesuch as reducing insomniasomethingthatwillhelpyou.Twosimple and anxiety, and lowering blood pressure tosearches of Very Well Mind will help you get mention a few. In addition, a trained psychologiststarted:meditationandbestmeditation can help you with your journey to declutterapps. The rst search for general meditation your mind and heal your body. With practiceinformation gives an excellent overview the and discipline these techniques can improveconcept of meditation, its history, and benets. the quality of your day-to-day life. Many ofThe second search will suggest a few apps these forms of mindful awareness have beento help you get started. Bear in mind that around for thousands of years. Technologymindfulness is a life-long journey.just makes them easier to find and more accessible to use. Insight TimerAs you may well be aware, many apps andOne of my favorite apps is Insight Timer. websites offer free limited versions of theirVisit insighttimer.com or download the app program. Usually, if you like the materialfrom your device app store. The free version offered you can then subscribe for morewill probably be sufficient if you are just starting content. It is always a good idea to try beforeyour exploration of mindfulness. The selections you buy. Pain is not usually an isolated issueoffered are well-described and very simple to so you will hopefully nd some well-roundeduse. You can choose how you want to practice. apps that will help you deal with the causesSome examples are time, sleep, music, voice, of your pain. Research has shown tools suchhealing, and pain relief. A comprehensive as these can improve your overall quality ofalphabetized list of choices will help you nd life and with practice and consistency maya technique that meets your goals. The one have a positive effect in lessening your pain.issue you might have with this app is that it is Very Well Mind somewhat cumbersome to navigate. However, this issue does not negate the benet of the Very Well Mind, verywellmind.com, is avariety and quality of the content. msfocusmagazine.org 38'