Pain Relief Meditation For A Body That Hurts For No Reason

Nothing is wrong, the tests said, and the ache stayed anyway. This practice does not argue with your pain or try to explain it. With a calm voice and cello underneath, it asks you to find one part of the body that feels neutral- an elbow, the back of a knee- and stay there for five slow breaths, longer than seems necessary. Then one more part, if you want.

Transcript

How many times have you been told there is nothing wrong with you? You came here with a body that hurts and no name for it. Nothing here asks you to explain that. You have learned to describe the pain well, Where it sits. How long it has stayed. Tonight you can stop describing it. Let one breath arrive. Let one breath leave Your feet can stay exactly where they are. This practice is called visiting the quiet part. You choose one place in your body that does not hurt right now. And you stay there longer than seems necessary. Find it now. Maybe. The back of your left hand. One earlobe. The skin over a collarbone. The smallest one. Stay there. Notice the temperature of that place. Whether the air is cooler there than your skin. You are not fixing anything. You are visiting. Count five breaths there if your attention slides back toward the pain that is expected. Bring it to the quiet place again. Without arguing. Now let your attention widen, Holding that place and the rest of you at once. Your attention did not drift there on its own. You sent it, And it arrived. Once more, Somewhere new. The jaw hinge. The back of the neck. The space behind the eyes. If any of those are neutral tonight, Five breaths there. And then let it go. The pain may be exactly where it was. That is not a failure of the practice. For a few minutes, Your attention went where you sent it. That happened.