Transforming Physical Pain: A Daily Practice

This works best as a daily practice. Listen to this session as a guided meditation or play it on low volume and fall asleep to it nightly. The goal of this session is to relax and quiet the conscious mind to be ready to receive and accept all of the positive suggestions for your highest good. This guided meditation is for anyone who wants to manage and decrease physical pain.

Transcript

Hi,

This is Dr.

Tracy Moreno,

Psychologist,

And this meditation is for transforming physical pain.

So go ahead and find somewhere comfortable to lay or sit,

Somewhere quiet where you won't be disturbed,

And just begin to breathe.

Breathe in deeply through your nose and exhale out the mouth,

And begin to deepen that breath and extend the inhale and the exhale.

With each exhale,

Allowing your body to relax into the breath,

Gently closing the eyes if you haven't already,

And beginning to let go.

Letting go and relaxing the mind and the body.

And on your next inhale,

I want you to breathe in as much air as you can and hold your breath for a mental count of three or four.

And then when you're ready,

Breathe out as slowly as you can through your mouth,

Almost as if you're breathing through a straw,

And relax the body into that breath.

And then breathe comfortably.

Go ahead and do that one again.

Breathe in,

Take in as much air as you can,

Holding for three or four,

And exhaling out as slowly as possible as you relax the body into that breath.

And then breathe comfortably.

Letting your body now relaxing even deeper,

Deeper into relaxation.

When you're ready,

Go ahead and do that breath again on your own.

You are now drifting down into a lovely,

Comfortable feeling.

And as you continue to relax,

You can really begin to enjoy this peace and calm.

It is a wonderful feeling to be so relaxed and quite perfect to be right here,

Right now.

Tensions can drop away and your body knows how to relax.

And you are listening to me today to find a way of managing the pain and discomfort you've been experiencing recently.

And to do this,

You have decided to use the wonderful,

Creative,

And self-healing unconscious mind.

And I would like you to focus now on the area of pain and discomfort wherever it is in the body.

If you have more than one place of pain or discomfort,

You might want to pick the place that has the most pain.

So now,

I want you to name the pain.

Give your pain a name that truly represents how it makes you feel.

Like a name you have an aversion to,

Or maybe the name of somebody you don't like too much.

Now just pay attention to the sensations you're experiencing.

I'd like you to assign an emotion to the pain,

As if the pain could tell you what it's feeling.

What emotion would it be feeling right now?

Is the pain sharp or dull?

Maybe heavy or strong?

Really notice the physical sensation of the pain.

Now assign it a color.

Envision the pain as this color.

Now give it a shape.

I'll give you a moment to allow a shape to come to your mind.

And as you visualize the pain as this shape and color,

Let's begin to play around with it a bit and let's see the creativity and power of your mind.

Imagine that you have superpowers and the possibilities are limitless.

You are limitless.

So let's see what you can do.

Change the color you initially assigned to that area.

If it was a dark color,

Maybe see it as a lighter color or vice versa.

Or you can change the color completely.

But change it to a shade or color that you find pleasant.

And now take a moment to see if that lessens the intensity of the pain any.

Now let's change the shape.

Move it around in your mind's eye and see if you can transform it from one shape to another,

Possibly even changing shapes repeatedly,

Almost playing with it like Plato.

Go ahead and have fun with it and see the power you possess.

Perhaps you can even move it to a different location in the body,

Maybe somewhere more manageable.

Some people move their pain to the end of their little finger or to a pinky toe where they feel it won't bother them as much and it allows them to manage their day better.

Move it now wherever you'd like and maybe you can play around with different locations.

Now let's change the name.

This time,

Choose a name that you like.

You can use the name of someone you love or that is special to you or just a name that you like.

Take a moment and notice how that area feels now.

Perhaps there is less discomfort.

Perhaps the intensity has decreased or subsided.

Perhaps even you are just entertained by the idea of having so much control over it.

Now let's try another way to manage and lessen the intensity of the pain.

I want you to imagine that you have a knob that can be turned right and left like the volume on a radio.

I want you to imagine that knob on your body somewhere.

It could be anywhere at all.

And when you turn the knob all the way to the right,

It would be at the highest volume possible and this will represent a high level of intense pain.

And if you turn the knob to the left,

It will be at the lowest volume and the lowest intensity of pain.

I want you to put the knob right in the middle and I want you to begin to slowly turn it right and see if the intensity of the pain increases at all.

And then slowly play with it and turn it back to the left and see if the intensity of the pain decreases.

Go ahead and play with this for a moment,

Controlling the intensity of the pain both up and down.

And as you do that,

I want you to keep turning it down more and more.

See how low you can get it.

Now,

We may never want to turn off the pain completely as it can be beneficial to keep a little bit of discomfort to protect that area from further injury.

But I want you to notice where on the line or where on the knob that it's situated and where you're able to feel the intensity of the pain.

And now that you have seen how you can take control of your pain,

I'm going to show you another technique that can help it fade away even further.

Envision a strong metal safe with a combination to lock it.

Notice how it can be sealed tightly and securely.

It cannot be opened by anybody but you because you are the only one with the combination.

Think of that combination now.

Keep it short and simple and something that you can easily remember later.

Now visualize taking the pain from your body and placing it into the safe.

Make sure that it is all in there and secure.

And when you're ready,

Close the safe and scramble the combination to lock it up tightly.

The safe is small enough to handle and light enough to carry.

I want you to pick it up and carry it to your car.

Open the trunk and place the safe inside of it,

Slamming the trunk shut.

Now we're going to take a little drive.

So get into the driver's seat now and start the car.

You feel safe and comfortable knowing that the pain is locked away securely in the trunk.

But let's see if we could get the pain even further and further away from us.

You start to drive down the street.

The street is empty.

No one is on it but you.

And up ahead in a clearing,

You see a giant,

Gorgeous hot air balloon filled with vibrant colors.

You pull up to the hot air balloon,

Park the car.

And as you're walking up towards the balloon,

You look up,

Up,

All the way up in awe of the magnificent,

Powerful presence of this hot air balloon.

And you know instinctively what to do.

You go to the trunk of the car and grab the safe,

Knowing the pain is locked tightly and securely inside.

You toss the safe into the basket of the gigantic balloon.

And then something shiny to the side of you catches your eye.

It's a pair of magical scissors.

You can feel the power of these scissors,

Knowing that these scissors can cut free this hot air balloon,

Releasing you even further from the pain.

You pick up the scissors and cut the rope that is tethered to the hot air balloon.

Cut it now.

It cuts easily and effortlessly as these are magic scissors.

Watch as the rope gently unravels,

And then it's released.

You watch as it drifts up,

Up,

And away.

And you feel it taking the pain with it,

Drifting further,

Further away from you.

The hot air balloon becomes smaller and smaller,

Just like the pain.

Drifting further and further,

Smaller and smaller,

Until it is completely out of sight.

Now whenever you need to ease the pain,

Just recall the combination to the safe.

Recall it now and visualize putting the pain safely and securely inside the safe and send it on a journey far,

Far away,

Distancing yourself from it at any time you need to.

This superpower is now yours.

And the more you use it,

The more effective it becomes in providing relief,

And you feel so much more comfortable and rested.

Great job.

Now take in a nice,

Big,

Deep breath,

Feeling proud of yourself for taking this time just for you today.

And as you begin to breathe,

Let that life come into your body,

Reawakening your body and your senses,

Wiggling your fingers and toes,

And opening your eyes when you're ready.

Namaste.