Downsizing Pain

It's not uncommon for physical illnesses, especially ones causing chronic pain, to lead to mental suffering. In this visulisation meditation, you are guided to downsize your pain through various exercises. You will be asked to rate the pain and see it as a shape and colour, and by altering your image of the pain, you will be able to reduce your pain levels.

Transcript

This is a guided meditation practice from Buddhism Guide called Downsizing Pain.

If you have physical pain,

It may be difficult for you to sit on a chair or on the floor,

So you can do this meditation laying down.

Ensure you're relaxed and comfortable,

And gently close your eyes.

Breathe in slowly and deeply through your nose.

Hold the breath,

And now gently release the air out through your mouth.

Again,

Slowly breathe in through your nose.

Hold,

And gently release the air through your mouth.

One more time,

Slowly breathe in.

Hold,

And gently release the air out.

Now breathe naturally,

And bring your focus to the breath flowing in and out of your nose.

Don't force the breath,

Just let it find its own rhythm.

Now gently move your focus to your pain.

I want you to rate your pain from 1 to 10.

1 being very little pain,

And 10 being unbearable pain.

Now I want you to slowly reduce your pain level by counting very slowly down to 1.

Each time you go down a digit,

Feel your pain slowly reducing.

That's it for a moment,

Observing your reduced pain level.

I want you now to visualize your pain as a big square box.

The pointed corners of the box are where your pain lies.

So very slowly start to change the square shape of the box into a perfect circle.

Notice how your pain has started to reduce.

Once you have done that,

Start to reduce the circle.

Each time you make the circle smaller,

Your pain starts to reduce.

So start to reduce your circle right down to a small dot.

Can you feel your pain starting to become more manageable?

Now visualize your pain is a deep blue color.

I want you to slowly change the color into a beautiful calm yellow color.

And as you slowly change the color,

Notice how the pain is reducing and your mood is becoming brighter.

Just sit with that feeling for a moment.

We're now coming to the end of this practice.

But before we finish,

I'd like you to focus your awareness on what it is like for you to engage in this visualization meditation.

If you found yourself struggling to remain fully present and mindful,

Don't worry.

Be patient and compassionate with yourself.

This practice becomes easier the more you do it.

When you're ready and there's absolutely no rush,

I want you to very slowly open your eyes and gently introduce yourself back into the world.

Now,

I want you to focus your awareness on what it is like to be present and mindful.

Now,

I want you to focus your awareness on what it is like to be present and mindful.

Reviews

The visualizations really helped me. When I started the pain was so bad I felt like I couldn't take a deep breath but by the end there was a noticeable loosening that made it possible to breathe well again! Thank you!

Thankyou so much for this beautiful meditation - Also would like to share my gratitude for your comforting grace at the end, to let us know if we struggled that it’s okay. This was so nice to hear as I do struggle with visualisation especially as my pain is so widespread. 🙏

Thank you! This did help yo ease my level of pain and discomfort. Many blessings to you.

As a person who lives with a chronic nerve pain condition this helped to calm my mind and control the pain without getting into a panic. Very helpful and will use this almost daily x

Amazing, it really reduced my pain…I feel so much better.

Thanks for this apparently easy but very useful practice. I am going to repeat it daily to ensure it becomes fully effective.I could already feel it's potential from the first session. Thanks again for sharing with us

Short, simple practice that reduces pain and induces a sense of peace.

I'm currently having a fibro flare up. Although my pain isn't completely gone, it reduced quite a bit & I'm ready for bed. 😴Thank you!

Wow. My pain went from a 6/10 down to a manageable 4/10! I hate taking pain meds, so this is a great alternative. Thank you!

This helped me feel relief quickly :) I am grateful to have found this. Looking forward to revisiting this meditation again.

Beautiful concept that I’ll be sure to revisit many times again. Thank you.

I needed something for my pain. This helped . Thank you

As a chronic pain sufferer, this meditation was very helpful. Take control and visually transforming the pain worked better than I thought possible.

This visualization is immensely helpful. It eases my pain every time. I’ve made it a regular part of my healing. Thank you!

Thank you for this meditation and the technique for lessening pain that it teaches. I found it very helpful and will return to so that it becomes a natural part of how I respond to pain.

Surprised at how quickly amd easily that worked. Thank you 🙏🏽

Beautiful visualisations to gentle music, really helped to ease pain (but returned as soon as I moved my body…) It helps just for a while so I will follow this again. Thank you for sharing! 😊🙏🏻

Very interesting approach to pain management. Loved the first couple of visualization techniques, particularly the edge smoother… struggled w/color visualization: somehow color yellow is associated with inflammation for me and color blue with relaxation…( 😅😂🙃), which is quite the opposite of what was suggested; but not a Big Deal, just flipped them;)))

Thanks again, Lama🙏🏻 will come back to that one… and your voice is so soothing; a Medicine in itself.

Namaste 💚

I’m
Loving your guided meditations. You speak to me

Thank you so much, your calm voice gave me such relief 🙏