Your 5 Morning Habits to Relieve Arthritis Pain and Stiffness

Do you have painful, stiff joints in the morning?

I know the feeling. When the pain and inflammation of rheumatoid arthritis was at its worst, mornings were tough. Upon awaking (if I even got much sleep) I would scrunch up my hands and feet, hoping upon hope that the pain would be gone. It wasn’t.

It would take time and letting go of inflammatory foods, thoughts and feelings, but gradually I DID reverse the pain and inflammation of arthritis. I found that how I STARTED my day affected my WHOLE day. Although ‘self-care’ has become a bit of a cliche, I know that self-care, especially in the morning, was critical in my healing.

When I took the time to start my day with self-care habits, the whole day was different. I felt more peaceful, and more of an active participant in my healing. Gradually I could feel the pain and inflammation subside.

These practices are so powerful that they continue to be part of my daily routine!

Would you like to have less pain and stiffness in the morning too? Your 5 morning habits to ease pain are right here for you:

1. Wake Up With Gratitude

Waking up with gratitude sets the tone for the rest of your day. Feelings of gratitude help you to feel calm and safe, invoking the parasympathetic state of the autonomic nervous system. In this state your body repairs.

You can think of three things you are grateful for, or say to yourself “this is going to be a great day!” What’s most important is how you FEEL!

2. Have a Hot Shower

Heat helps improve circulation allowing the muscles and joints to move more easily. Most heat, especially, relieves stiffness and pain. A hot shower also warms up muscles and tendons for the next step: stretching.

3. Gentle Movement/Stretching

When joints become stiff, the tendons, ligaments and muscles become tighter, limiting the movement of joints even further. Movement gets circulation going and circulation helps the immune system do its work, lowering inflammation and the pain that goes with it.

The movement should be gentle and you should feel a stretch. However, don’t rush through real pain. Yoga is great as is foam rolling or another gentle stretching practice.

Before trying any exercise, please consult with your medical team to make sure it is appropriate for you.

4. Meditate

Some people may be turned off by the word ‘meditate’ but it simply means stilling the mind bu not thinking about the past or the future. This can be a challenge for our ‘monkey minds’ and that is why it’s called a ‘practice.’ We have to keep practicing stilling the mind.

How does this help? When we still our conscious mind, the subconscious mind, which runs all our body systems, becomes more efficient, allowing healing to happen.

When beginning meditation t helps to focus on the breath and breathing deeply into the belly. Deep breathing stimulates the vagus nerve which connects the gut, heart and brain.

Focusing on positive emotions like peacefulness, love, gratitude, compassion, kindness helps the heart and brain become coherent, again helping all body systems run efficiently and promoting healing.

It may help to silently repeat a mantra that evokes positive feelings: ‘I am peaceful’ or ‘I am healing’ for example.

5. Affirmations

Your subconscious mind runs the autonomic nervous system (ANS). When running smoothly in the parasympathetic sate, the ANS moves towards homeostasis within the body, promoting healing and lowering pain.

Many of us have negative subconscious thoughts which actually hinder healing. These can come from childhood programming or negative conscious thoughts. Repeating affirmations consciously is one way to reprogram the subconscious mind.

Affirmations are positive statements repeated silently or aloud. The statements should start with ‘I am. …’, be in the present tense and be believable to you. Using powerful feeling words in the statement is helpful.

Here are some examples:

• I am confidently aware that every day and in every way my health is getting better and better.

• I am brimming with energy and overflowing with joy.

• I am delightedly enjoying being the architect of my life, building its foundation and choosing its contents.

• I am happily taking loving care of my body.

• I am allowing the intelligence of my body to do its healing work naturally.

• I am appreciating how my body is always doing its best to create perfect health.

• I am enjoying the foods that are best for my body.

• I am allowing my body to heal itself each day.

• I am sending loving energy to every cell in my body.

• I am constantly discovering new ways to improve my health.

• I am worthy of perfect health.


Summary

There you have it! Your 5 morning habits to relieve arthritis pain and inflammation are:

1. Wake up with gratitude

2. Have a hot shower

3. Gentle movement/stretching

4. Meditate

5. Affirmations

How about giving these five morning habits to ease arthritis pain and inflammation a try? Don’t underestimate the power of the mental and emotional practices like gratitude, meditation and affirmations. The mind is a powerful tool in easing pain and promoting healing!

A great way to help improve your health is choosing how to start your day.  The start of your day can have a profound affect on the rest of your day - even your pain levels. I have a great free resource for you to implement right away to help you become empowered in your health.  Click on the image below to receive it.