Hi,
My name is Shannon Algeo,
I am a psychotherapist,
A meditation teacher and an author,
And this is calm with chronic pain,
A practice to be with chronic pain,
Something that I've been sitting with for the last four years,
And to explore it with a sense of compassion and connection.
So let's begin by closing our eyes if that feels comfortable for you.
And moving your body into a position that will serve you right now,
Even if it's not the most comfortable position,
If comfort is not available to you right now in this moment.
We want to begin.
Such a quality of the chronic pain experience is resisting the pain or wishing it wasn't there,
This kind of psychological and physiological resistance.
So we want to begin simply by meeting it,
Greeting it.
Even though it might be quite unwelcome to many parts of us.
Practice right now.
With a smooth quality of breath.
Meeting.
The moment.
With a sense of curiosity and.
.
.
Acknowledgement.
Before we work with.
Noticing the sensation of the chronic pain.
Or even beginning to possibly accept its presence right now,
Let's start by widening our circle of compassion to know that we are not alone.
That there are many people right now who are joined with us in this experience of discomfort,
Of pain.
Of an ongoing Battle.
To feel whole and to feel well.
Perhaps we can just expand ourselves to know that.
This chronic pain is a portal to connection and compassion to this wider web of of empathy for this human experience.
Knowing you are not alone,
Notice how you breathe.
And now instead of.
The typical shying away from or resisting the pain or perhaps obsessing or trying,
Understandably,
To fix it or resolve it.
Notice if you can breathe towards it and reach towards the pain with your breath.
Just notice.
The sensations that it's bringing to you right now,
Bringing to your awareness.
And if possible,
Perhaps not going into the story about the sensation,
But just breathing and feeling with being with the sensation itself.
Taking three spacious breaths to maybe feel a sense of softening,
Of buoyancy,
Of spaciousness around.
The constricted or painful sensation.
Keeping the exhales nice and long as you create some smoothness and steadiness around your experience.
Knowing that the breath is a forever ally.
To help us find optimal arousal to.
.
.
Find some.
Tolerance and some resilience and resourcefulness in our community.
Emotional reserves.
And then lastly,
Just bring one hand onto the heart,
One hand onto the belly.
I want to invite you to find one action that you can take to move towards care,
Calm,
Connection,
And compassion.
One hopeful action.
So much of chronic pain is a feeling of hopelessness,
Helplessness,
And despair.
And so maintaining one pathway towards a hopeful action.
Can sustain us.
Thank you for joining in this practice with me,
Honoring you and this journey that you're on.
May you experience relief,
Resolve.
And thank you for practicing with me today.
