Chronic Pain | The Psychological Suffering

Chronic pain doesn't just hurt in the body - it quietly dismantles your whole life. This deeply honest and compassionate talk on the psychological suffering of chronic pain shares raw personal experience of depression, anxiety, exhaustion, social isolation and the constant inner battle that constant pain creates.

Exploring how emotional fluidity, rather than resistance, is the key to suffering less, this is perfect for chronic pain sufferers who feel mis-understood and alone in equal measure, and ideal for a quiet reflective evening or morning. A warm, candid and quietly hopeful talk. Leave with a genuinely new understanding of your suffering and real hope for a more peaceful way to live.

Transcript

Chronic pain is not easy to live with and it can really color your whole perspective on life. It encompasses and is interconnected with so much more than just the pain itself. It impacts how safe and grounded we feel on a daily basis. It affects our capacity to work. It's entangled with so many emotions around it and so it affects our mental and physical well-being. And even the relationships around us are impacted. So the psychological suffering around pain is something really worth touching on. Of course each of our situations is different and so it will affect us in slightly different ways. A constant pain can cause us to become quite depressed, Exhausted from the never-ceasing struggle with it or possibly because of the way in which it's affected other aspects of our life. We can develop a sense of fear or anxiety because we lack a true feeling of being safe, Constantly bombarded by the push and pull of pain. I found that at times my temper can get short due to the fact that I never really get a rest. I'm incessantly being poked at by my pain. Over time we can begin to lose our sense of confidence as well or become really stressed, Not knowing how to inhabit the body or where to turn. And all these emotions arise because we have a constant inner battle going on with the pain. It's exhausting and so our system becomes very sensitive to these emotions. It can be a lonely place to be as people around us don't truly know what it's like. They may be deeply compassionate but they probably don't know what it actually feels like. In the past I found it challenging to know how to juggle my social life. My capacity to go out and stand up for any length of time or walk is extremely limited. Wanting to include me, Friends and family would often invite me to do things and it was hard to know what was best. I often knew that the activity would push my body over its limits and cause further pain so I really wanted to say no but then I had to try and balance becoming a hermit and still trying to engage with life as best I can. But then there were times I tried to do things and it ended up being way too much and I suffered immensely for it so it was very hard harmony for me to find. Emotional and psychological factors also significantly influence our pain is experienced and perceived so we can get stuck in a circle of suffering. As with my situation sometimes there's just nothing that can be done to take the pain or the challenges away and so for me it became more about how do I live with this pain in a better way. Something about this question changed the way in which I approach pain and the suffering around it. The key really is to ease the instinctive holding and contraction that we have around all of our experiences. We don't usually realize how much we freeze around both pain and feelings and emotions and this freezing process seems to solidify those experiences. And fix them into what seems like actual parts of ourselves or our life and we begin to identify with them. But if we can remain fluid, Less reactive and allow the pain, Feelings and emotions to move through it gradually starts to change our relationship with them. Allows the inner wall to calm and changes how we inhabit the body. So the more fluid and open you can be with all these experiences the more you can free yourself by being overwhelmed by them and the less you suffer. This doesn't mean stopping yourself from feeling anxious or stressed or whatever it might be and hoping this will change how you perceive pain. But it's finding the courage to allow yourself to feel whatever is arising and just let it be what it is. The process of energy moving through. It might not be all that easy to begin with or it may take some time to directly experience but this will gradually open up and strengthen in time and eventually become the natural way that you respond to what's going on in and around you. As it has with me it can become such a huge resource. I'll always be so grateful for the way in which it has allowed me to live my life now in a much more meaningful, Joyful and peaceful way. If you're someone who lives with pain you can take a look at my course Finding Peace While Living in Pain where I guide you gradually through the journey that has really helped me to live peacefully amongst my pain. Hopefully it can give you a new perspective and understanding and somehow make a difference for you too.

Reviews

So helpful. We all have suffering. It is the first Noble Truth. This meditation is wonderful for anyone with chronic pain of any kind. I think Olivia is my favorite teacher on this app. Her story and inner strength inspires and her thoughts illuminate my path on the middle way towards wholeness and compassion.

What and how you share is amazing and certainly something to come back to again and again. Wishing you a beautiful blessed day.💝