Working With Pain

Working with pain; a guided meditation to be present with pain. The objective is not to fix or change pain but to get to know it, manage reactions to it and learn from it. Mindfulness can help to improve the psychological experience of pain; decrease reactivity and judgment, increase a sense of acceptance for unpleasant sensations, and improving emotional flexibility.

Transcript

A meditation for working with pain.

First a few words about bringing mindfulness to sensations,

Then we will engage in a practice.

I'll let you know when we make that transition to meditation.

For now just find a comfortable place to rest,

Sitting or lying,

And just listen.

Bringing awareness to sensations can be helpful in finding balance and a presence in the midst of a challenging situation.

Knowing that sensations like thoughts can be pleasant,

Unpleasant and neutral.

And rather than referring to the experience as pain,

Consider reframing the experience to unpleasant,

Purposefully attending to the changing situation and sensations from moment to moment.

Be slow and gentle in contacting these sensations,

A little at a time as to not become overwhelmed.

Any physical suffering that presents itself can be exaggerated by our resistance.

Learning to relax with pain and discomfort,

Allowing it and accepting it can be helpful to ease the suffering around it.

Then cultivate a non-reactive awareness can bring more comfort and ease.

Bring a sense of investigation to noticing what is present and your relationship to this pain.

Maybe even making some inquiry,

How am I relating to pain?

Is it the resistance,

Reactivity,

Judgments?

And can you bring some interest and kindness or you might ask yourself,

Am I afraid?

Am I afraid of this getting worse?

That it won't go away?

That this could mean something more serious might be going on?

Am I feeling victimized?

Am I angry at my body?

Am I somehow disappointed in my body for letting me down?

Am I bringing additional anxiety to this unpleasant experience?

During these processes,

See if you can relax and become aware of the physical,

Mental and or emotional reactivity to these unpleasant sensations and then include them,

Bringing this too with a kind and clear attention and having compassion for yourself and for your discomfort.

There is no value in fighting aversion to pain.

Trust your awareness itself to open you to a space of more balance and freedom and throughout checking in occasionally,

How bad is this in this moment?

If it ever feels like too much,

Then do what you know works to alleviate some of the intensity and come back to the meditation.

Compassion and or any insight practice should never be forced or uncomfortable.

Learning to be with what is with a kind,

Open minded awareness and a gentle,

Compassionate heart is sometimes best done in small steps.

Recognizing and allowing this hurts or I am suffering can elicit a softening and an opening of the heart.

It can be helpful to imagine how you might bring kindness to a child who is suffering and then bring that kindness to yourself.

Additional ways to work with intense discomfort is to find another part of your body that feels neutral or pleasant.

This is often the hands or lips,

Noticing how they are just relaxed.

It might be your feet just resting.

Finding a secondary place to bring awareness is zone two is a pleasant experience and zone one as the unpleasant part that is too hard to stay with.

It might be pain in the neck,

Stomach,

Headache.

Go there and notice and then bring your attention back to a zone two where you can find a neutral or pleasant place to rest your attention.

See if you can inhabit this area of pleasant sensation or even noticing no neutral sensations in your body.

Establish an awareness in zone one of pleasant or neutral sensations and see if you can rest there with less attention to zone one and see if you can cultivate an ability to move back and forth.

These practices of sensing the back and forth movement of pleasant,

Neutral and unpleasant can develop an ability to be with pain with a kind awareness and less reactivity.

And know that there may be times when this is not possible.

When the pain is too intense and throws you completely off balance,

Use your conventional resources to ease your pain,

Whether it's sleep,

Medicines.

Never force yourself to be with anything that is too intense.

Trying to force a practice adds more difficulty.

Sometimes giving it some space can be helpful.

Even having someone hold your hand and be present with you.

Having someone to rest with.

A space to rest in peace.

A space that feels secure.

Finding a place where the attention can rest.

Something other than the pain.

Maybe just lying down and resting with kindness and love.

Repeating a kind of mantra to yourself.

Resting in love.

Resting in peace.

Finding words or something or someone that feels big enough for you to rest there.

This can be useful when pain is too distressing.

Turning your attention to whatever brings you comfort and to what soothes you and then to awareness practice.

And now transitioning into a practice.

Make any adjustments to be more comfortable whether you're sitting or lying down.

And take a few moments to become still.

Letting yourself be quiet with a natural flow of the breath.

Take a few moments to focus on deep,

Slow breathing.

And a focused attention on sensing a release during the slow,

Steady out breath.

Releasing tension during the out breath.

This cleansing in breath.

This relaxing out breath.

Begin scanning through your body.

Relaxing your face.

Letting your jaw be slack.

Shoulders relaxed.

And sensing your pain.

See if you can bring your attention to the pain and noticing what happens as you bring your attention to the unpleasant part of you.

Is there an attempt to push it away?

To block it?

To pull away from it?

Is there fear?

See if you can bring a kind attention to this discomfort,

Noticing what is there.

Noticing how this unpleasant sensation or sensations are felt.

Is it tight?

Hot?

Constricting?

Sharp?

And are there emotions or thoughts as well?

Notice if there is fear,

If there is anger,

Judgment.

Bring a full healing presence both with being open to what is happening and being in contact with what is here.

Letting your body and mind mingle.

These sensations,

These feelings and thoughts,

Maybe even allowing all of it to be present.

Any sounds that are close.

The sensations of being supported by the chair or the bed.

With an open kind attention,

See if you can just be still with all that is here.

And now see if you can bring an awareness to areas of your body that are comfortable,

Pleasant or without pain.

Make contact with these areas of your body can help your nervous system to relax.

It can bring a more gentle awareness to your pain.

Find what is comfortable.

It might be a sense of your hands or feet just resting.

Maybe the softness in the area around your eyes,

The gentle way the lips touch or the softness of the belly.

Maybe even the rise and fall of the breath in the belly.

And now see if you can sense your whole body resting here.

The comfortable and the uncomfortable.

See if you can sense your whole body as it is bringing a gentle kind awareness to yourself.

Notice if you can stay connected to the sensations of spaciousness of your body and being in your surroundings.

And open minded awareness and in direct contact with yourself and your body and how you are feeling in your body.

The pleasant,

The unpleasant and the neutral.

Allowing this to be and knowing this too will change.

Noticing what this experience is like.

Is there aching,

Burning,

Throbbing?

Does the unpleasantness feel constricting or more like a knot?

Is it intense pressure?

Are the sensations diffused or focused?

Specific or general?

And how do they change as you have this kind of awareness?

What happens as you are present without resistance?

As your attention becomes more soft and present?

What changes happen?

Maybe there is a shift in sensation,

Thoughts or emotions.

And maybe there is no sense of change.

Just allow what you are aware of.

And it's natural for resistance to arise,

Resistance,

Fear,

Judgment.

And when this resurfaces,

Again come back to your breath or the feeling in your body.

Noticing areas that are not painful or the sounds that are present.

Noticing there is room to be present with all of this.

The pleasant,

The unpleasant and the neutral.

Nothing this will change.

No holding onto,

No pushing away.

Explore what it means to have a surrendering presence,

Releasing resistance over and over again.

Discover how you can be with this.

Being in a sea of awareness,

Bringing an open and tender space to yourself and to your discomfort.

Imagine how you might bring comfort to a child who is suffering.

And bring this love and kind compassion to yourself.

Resting in a loving kindness,

Bringing an open awareness and a healing presence to your pain.

Resting with this,

These sensations,

This breath,

These sounds.

Bringing compassion to yourself in this difficulty.

Namaste.

Reviews

Very wise and calming. Thanks for posting ❤❤❤❤