In most cases of chronic pain,
The brain is getting safe,
Normal signals from the body,
But it's misinterpreting them as dangerous.
To turn off the false alarm,
You need to teach your brain how to interpret these signals as safe.
I will guide you through an exercise called somatic tracking.
Somatic tracking is an exercise in watching the sensations of the body through a lens of safety to help retrain the neural pathways in the brain to perceive these sensations as safe and therefore to gradually turn off the pain.
So let's start by closing your eyes and bringing your attention into your body to help ground you into this moment.
Let's slow your breath down a little and focus on the breath coming in and out.
And I want you to see if you could bring your attention to the dominant physical sensation in your body right now.
It could be in your chest or your hands or your back,
Wherever you feel it most right now.
Just let your attention go there.
And if you're feeling a sensation in more than one place,
Just choose one.
And I want you to see if you can focus on the physical sensation itself.
We're not doing this with intensity,
We're being curious about it.
You could use the breath to explore the sensation.
What does it feel like to be in this part of the body?
When we feel a physical sensation that isn't pleasant,
We often have the tendency to try to distract ourselves from it and focus on something else.
But I want you to see if you can do the opposite,
To just focus on the sensation and just notice it.
Just see if you can watch it without trying to do anything at all.
We're not trying to change it.
We're not trying to make it go away.
You're just exploring it,
So just notice it.
Is it pleasant?
Is it unpleasant?
Or is it neutral?
One isn't any better than the other.
You're just noticing it.
What are the characteristics?
Is it widespread?
Is it localized?
You're just assessing the qualities of the sensation,
That's all.
Is it heavy or light?
Is it moving or stationary?
Is it tingly?
Is it pulsing?
Is it a tight feeling?
Is it a feeling of pressure?
It really doesn't matter.
See if it's possible to give more neutral or even pleasant descriptive terms to the sensations.
If there's a sensation of squeezing,
Could you think of it as being like a feeling of being massaged?
If it's a hot burning feeling,
See if you can think of it as being like a lovely warm or hot bath.
All you're doing is practicing seeing if you can watch the sensation from a place of truly detached curiosity.
Just noticing the safe sensations is not dangerous at all,
It's perfectly safe and all you're doing is you're paying attention and noticing it.
You don't need to get rid of it,
You don't need to change it,
Your job is just to get to know it and notice it.
You're just gathering information,
You're just noticing,
You're paying attention.
Maybe you could even appreciate it as being a pleasant thing to do,
To just watch the sensations,
Mindfully gathering information,
Not meaning that you have to feel the sensations themselves are pleasant,
But the fact that you're just watching them,
That act of watching them can be quite pleasant.
Just like it can be pleasant lying back in a grassy field,
Looking up into the sky and watching the clouds as they pass by in the sky,
You're just watching them calmly,
Safely from a distance,
Just noticing the sensations do.
Do they intensify?
Do they move?
Do they stay the same?
Knowing it really doesn't matter what they do,
What happens is okay.
These are just safe sensations that your unique brain is creating in your body.
You're just watching and in doing so you're actually communicating to your brain that this interesting sensation is really safe,
That it's okay and you're just getting to know it right now in this moment.
You're developing the neural pathways to pay attention to this physical sensation without fear,
Without judgment,
Without any ulterior motive or goals.
You're just watching,
Like you might sit back and watch a show,
Just notice what happens,
Remembering that it doesn't matter what it does,
We're being outcome independent,
So if it moves around,
Intensifies or stays exactly the same that's all fine.
Your job is just to strengthen those brain muscles,
You're learning to pay attention mindfully and whatever it does,
It doesn't matter.
The only thing that matters is just to see if you can pay attention mindfully and communicate a nice loving message to your body and to your brain,
These sensations are safe,
You're just noticing the sensations,
Being curious to see where they go,
What they do.
And I invite you to take a couple more moments to breathe into this sensation,
Just noticing where it goes,
What it does,
If it changes or stays the same.
And then in a moment I'm going to ask you to open your eyes,
But first just take a couple of breaths and reconnect with yourself,
To re-ground yourself.
Notice your whole body,
The sensations in your arms,
Your legs,
Maybe gently moving to bring yourself back gently.
And taking a breath,
That's right,
And just feel the physical sensations of breath coming in and going out.
And when you're ready,
Open your eyes.
