Mindfulness Of Difficult Physical Sensations (Pain)

A mindfulness-based practice that explores defusion from thoughts, body scan, breathing, and visualisation (expansion) of challenging body sensations (pain). The aim of this practice is to practice observing challenging physical sensations (mindfulness).

Transcript

Welcome.

Take a moment to settle into a comfortable position.

This might be lying down,

Sitting,

Or standing.

Make sure it's a position that you can maintain for about 10 minutes.

And when you're ready,

Just gently close your eyes and ground yourself in this position.

If closing your eyes is too much for you,

Or it becomes too much for you,

That's okay.

Gently open your eyes again and just choose a spot in the room to gently rest your sight on.

We're gonna begin with a body scan,

Starting with the top of your head,

And try to bring all your awareness to your forehead,

To your eyes,

To your cheeks and your jaw.

Notice your neck.

Bring awareness to your shoulders.

Just move down and notice your chest and your belly.

Notice your back and if it is resting against something.

Take your awareness to your left arm and move down your left arm with your awareness from your bicep to your tricep,

Down to your wrist,

Palm of your hand,

And into your fingers.

Now also do this with your right arm,

Noticing your bicep,

Your tricep,

Your wrist,

The palm of your right hand,

And down into your fingers.

Notice your backside,

Especially if it's sitting in a chair,

In the backs of your legs.

Notice your thighs,

Your knees,

Your calves,

Down to both of your ankles and your feet.

Just take a moment to become aware of your whole body.

And now we're going to shift our awareness to our breath.

Just notice the air moving in and out of your nostrils.

If you can,

Try to keep your mouth closed and allow the air to gently fill in through your nostrils and out through your nostrils.

Take one big deep in-breath and then sigh this air out.

Let's do that once more.

Breathe in and sigh it out.

Allow your breathing to return to its normal rate.

Start to become aware of your thinking.

Just pay attention to your thinking and what words might be coming into your mind.

You can watch these words as they move in and out,

As if they're on a TV screen in front of you.

So just allow them to move in,

Have their brief moment.

Notice them,

But just try not to get hooked by them.

You don't need to distract from your thoughts or try to control them or get rid of them.

They'll do that on their own,

In their own time.

Simply let them come and go as they please,

And then gently return your attention to your breath.

In this exercise,

We're gonna notice the physical sensations that accompany your pain.

I will refer to it as physical sensations throughout the rest of this practice.

So now is the time to bring your attention to the area of your body where you feel these physical sensations.

Notice the area and notice your breath at the same time.

On your next in-breath,

Notice the sensation of air moving in and around this area that you normally refer to as painful.

Notice that there is this area and there is some space around it.

You can breathe around this area and allow it to simply be.

Now we're gonna spend a few moments watching this area of your body.

So try to bring to mind this area of physical sensation and the shape that it might take for you today.

This shape might change over time.

It might change day to day.

But today,

Right now,

What shape do these physical sensations take?

Try to visualize in your mind the shape of these physical sensations.

If you are someone who finds it very difficult to visualize,

That's okay.

Do your best and however this makes sense to you.

Watch the shape of these physical sensations for a moment.

You might notice the shape changes or it might simply remain static.

Simply watch.

Observe this area of your body as if you're a curious scientist and you've never seen it before.

Now that you have a shape in mind,

Try to visualize the size of the shape of these physical sensations.

And simply watch the size and shape for a minute.

Once again,

You might notice they both change.

Over time,

They might grow larger,

They might grow smaller,

They might feel bigger,

They might feel more painful,

But they might not as well.

Our goal is not to get rid of this,

Our goal through this exercise is simply allow it to be just as it is.

So we're just going to watch it just as it is,

Even if it shifts and changes.

So now that you have a shape and a size in mind,

Try to picture this area as a color and what color it might be if you were to describe it to somebody else.

This color might change day to day for you and that's okay.

Notice on how it feels and seems today.

Notice if the color is changing at all or whether or not it simply stays the same throughout this exercise.

And if you were to reach out and touch this shape in the size that it's in and the color that it is,

What would it feel like?

Would it have a particular temperature to it?

Would it be hot or cold?

Would it feel lukewarm?

If you were to physically touch it,

How would it feel to the touch?

Would it be soft?

Hard?

Would it be smooth,

Rough,

Gooey?

And would this area of your body be vibrating or would it be static or would it oscillate between the two?

Now just sit and watch this shape in the size that it's in,

The color that it is,

The temperature it feels as though it would be,

Whether it's vibrating or still,

Moving or not,

Growing or shrinking.

Simply watch it for a moment and when you're doing this in your own time,

You can spend as much time here as you would like.

Notice with this object once more that as you breathe in,

You can breathe in and around this area.

Notice your breath moving in and around this area of physical sensation.

Even if the sensation feels as though it's in your entire body,

Notice that when you breathe,

There is movement around the sensation.

So just like you were doing with your thoughts and simply watching them as they come and go,

You're doing that also to this area of physical sensation.

Breathe in and around,

Bring that picture to mind of this area and spend as much time here as you would like.

Now we're going to gently expand our awareness once more.

So come back to noticing your breath.

We're going to start by noticing our whole body this time.

And do another body scan from top to toe,

Beginning with your forehead,

Down to your eyes,

Your cheeks and your jaw,

Your neck,

Your shoulders.

Just notice down your left arm,

Notice down your right arm,

Notice your chest and belly,

Your back and back side.

Notice down your legs,

Your left leg,

Down to your foot and your toes,

And your right leg,

Down to your foot and into your toes.

And even with your eyes closed,

Notice what you can see.

Notice the light,

The varying degrees of shapes and colors you might see behind your eyelids if they're closed,

And if they're open,

Just simply notice what you can see directly where you're looking.

Notice also what you can smell or sense in your nostrils.

Notice what you can taste in your mouth,

And notice what you can hear around you at the moment.

Now when you're ready,

Just gently return to the present moment by opening your eyes and take a slow,

Gentle look around the room that you're in.

And feel free to take another breath in and sigh it out.

And thank yourself for a job well done.

Thank you for participating in this mindfulness of the body today,

And particularly a body that's experiencing some pain sensations.

I wish you well.

Reviews

This meditation helped relieve some of the pain and helped me not feel so overwhelmed with it. Thank you.