I have a very long list of things that I try...kind of like my flare up emergency kit.

#1 thing is usually take a warm/hot bath with epsom salts. This is one of the few things that can help me when the pain is wide spread...to just soak in the warm water. But...I have to get out before it gets cold...or badness ensues. When it's cold in the house/outside...I make sure to put a space heater in the bathroom before my bath to warm the room up so it's not cold when I get out because again...badness ensues if I get cold.

#2...rest and warmth. Space heaters are great to warm an area without anything actually touching me. I also use heat patches (generic thermacare ones usually) or reusable heat pads (downside to these is they don't stay warm very long)...or heated blanket (I usually sit on top of it because in a bad flare up I usually want nothing on top of me).

#3...Lidocaine Patches are my friend for flare ups...so I use them. One caveat...they send me through the roof when I first put them on because they are cold...but once they are on they really do help (a little...everything helps a little and then that adds up to getting me out of a flare up).

#4...I have a flare up playlist on my ipod. Sounds silly...but it really can help me just calm down and stress is often a cause of the flare ups. I put in earbuds because those help vs just listening on a speaker. My flare up playlist is instrumental songs...many from movies/tvshows...but I just close my eyes while resting in my warm spot and it does help.

Those are my usual tricks. Back when my pain was in one place, a TENS unit and ultrasound heat therapy were two very useful tools for me as well. The more wide spread pain made those not as effective for me but both can be purchased on Amazon.

The big trick is to find what works for YOU and realizing there's no miracle fix. A lot of time it's a lot of little things that just help a little and help break that cycle to get you back to baseline. I also find distractions are good. I cross stitch, color, do puzzles, etc. TV is not very helpful for me...I rarely LOSE myself in the tv like I can in these other things...but find what works for you without making your pain worse. I now have this condition in my hands so it does limit my ability to do these things I love...but I will do them in short stretches and take breaks from them often and they still help distract me for a bit.