Hi,
Dr.
Adele Stewart here.
This meditation is called The Pain Story.
It can help us notice our natural human tendency to try and think our way out of any problem,
Including pain,
By remembering past experiences and imagining future experiences.
It can help us get a little distance from these thoughts,
Perhaps changing our relationship with them.
And by doing this,
Sometimes over and over,
We may be able to notice the pain as it actually is in this moment.
So finding yourself a comfortable position now,
Perhaps sitting on something like a dining room chair with the feet flat on the floor,
Or perhaps lying on your back on the floor,
Moving the body slightly,
Allowing any tension that's easily released to be released.
Noticing the sense of arriving in your chosen posture and starting by noticing the contact of the feet with the floor.
If your soles of the feet are on the floor,
Really noticing the sensations in the soles,
Using this as your anchor.
Perhaps you continue to use the soles of the feet as your anchor.
Or maybe you like,
Might like to try using the sense of gravity,
Gravity,
Noticing the weight of the body,
Contact with the surface,
The chair or the floor,
Or other surface,
Using this sense of gravity and weight and the contact as your anchor right now.
Perhaps you might like to notice the sensations in your hands as an anchor,
Just noticing with curiosity,
Any sensations you can feel on the skin of the hands,
Perhaps where they're touching the surface or your legs or each other.
Noticing sensations right into the tips of the fingers.
And so perhaps you might want to continue with either the soles of the feet or gravity or sensations in the hands as your anchor.
Or perhaps you might like to move to the breath,
Just noticing where you feel the breath most easily in the body,
Where you feel the breath,
Feel the breath,
Not analyze it,
Not visualize it,
Not imagine it,
Actually feel the sensations of breathing,
Perhaps in the nostrils,
The rise and fall of the chest or belly,
Perhaps the rhythm of the whole body breathing,
Knowing that it's completely normal and natural for the mind to wander,
Perhaps over and over again.
Simply noticing where the mind has wandered,
No need to block them,
Force them away,
Just allowing them to stay in the background,
Bringing your attention to your anchor in the foreground.
Now noticing if and where there might be unpleasant or painful sensations in the body,
Gently noticing if it's one area or several.
And as you feel into perhaps one area of physical unpleasant sensations or pain,
Can you notice if there are thoughts about the pain,
Thoughts about the pain,
Perhaps related to the past,
Perhaps just a few minutes ago or recently,
Or perhaps from the more distant past.
Noticing also if there might be any thoughts related to the future to do with the pain,
Comes up,
What kind of worries,
Fears or concerns,
No need for judgment here,
This exploration is really allowing these thoughts to be seen,
To be noticed.
Perhaps you can also notice emotions that come with these thoughts,
The past or the future related to the pain.
Checking out,
Perhaps there's really big emotion here that actually needs to be sat with gently,
Perhaps even pausing on this meditation and using one of the guided meditations for difficult emotions.
Or perhaps right now it feels okay to lightly make a note,
Ah,
Pain thoughts,
Or this is the pain story,
Using a really kind and gentle inner tone of voice,
Noting these thoughts about the pain,
Perhaps,
Oh,
The past pain story,
Or ah,
The future pain story,
And letting the thoughts move to the background.
You might even think of it as dropping the pain story and bringing the attention back to your chosen anchor,
The soles of your feet or gravity,
Sensations in the hands or the breath.
No need to give yourself a hard time if the pain story returns,
Which it will do.
Just again and again,
Noticing,
Allowing the thoughts to move to the background and bringing your awareness to the anchor in the foreground.
Just allowing yourself to rest with your anchor.
There's no need to do anything,
No need to fix anything,
No need to change anything.
Right at this moment,
There is no problem to solve.
Allowing thoughts about pain or pain sensations themselves to stay in the background of your awareness,
And over and over,
Bringing your anchor into the foreground of your awareness.
Try not to get too frustrated if you find that the thoughts come back again and again and again.
Know that the practice of noticing the thoughts,
Dropping them or allowing them into the background and returning to the anchor,
It's a very powerful practice.
And every time you do it,
You're giving wonderful benefits to your system.
The meditation is soon coming to an end.
Perhaps you could even give yourself some appreciation for the time you've spent in this practice.
Taking some time now to gently move the body,
Opening the eyes if they've been closed,
Going about your day.
You might like to even practice noticing the pain story informally as you go about your day and coming back to an anchor.
