Welcome.
You can stay exactly as you are.
You do not need to sit up or adjust or prepare.
If you are lying down,
Stay there.
If you are curled around the discomfort,
That is okay.
We will work with wherever you are.
Pain is loud right now.
You're not going to pretend otherwise or try to think our way around it or wait for it to quiet down before we begin.
We are going to begin here.
In this.
If it feels available to you,
Bring your attention to your breath.
Not to change it.
Just to find it underneath everything else that is happening.
The breath is still moving even now.
Notice the air coming in.
And notice the air going out.
Now.
This is the heart of today's practice.
See if you can turn your attention.
Gently toward the area of discomfort.
Not to fix it.
Not to assess how bad it is.
Just to observe it.
The way you might observe weather passing through.
Notice the quality of the sensation.
Is it sharp?
Throbbing.
Is it constant?
Or does it shift in some way?
You are not trying to change what you find.
You are just looking at what is there clearly.
Notice what happens when you observe the sensation this way.
Without adding a story to it.
Without the layers of this is unbearable.
Or this will never stop.
Or I can't do anything about it.
Those thoughts are understandable.
They are not the sensation itself.
They are what the mind adds on top.
See if,
Just for this moment,
You can set the story down and stay with the sensation itself.
Now notice the edges of the sensation.
Where it begins and where it ends.
There is likely some part of your body right now that is not in pain.
Your hands,
Your face,
Perhaps the soles of your feet.
Allow your attention to rest there for a moment.
Noticing what is neutral.
What is simply present without demand?
And come back to your breath.
And how.
The instinct when pain flares is to brace against it.
To tighten.
Don't resist to push back.
This instinct makes complete sense.
But resistance adds a layer of tension on top of what is already difficult.
See if there is any softening available.
Not into the pain,
But around it.
In the muscles surrounding it.
In your jaw.
Your hands.
Your breath.
Even a small amount of softening changes the conditions.
You do not have to get through the whole day right now.
You only have to get through this breath.
And then the next one.
When you are ready.
Allow your attention to gently widen.
Back to the room.
To the sounds around you.
To the surface beneath you,
Steady and present.
You are in a hard moment.
And you are still here.
And that is enough for now.
