Welcome to this meditation where we'll be focusing on pain and how to be with pain during a meditation.
It is likely that as you are in pain it is difficult to bring your awareness to the experience of pain and even more difficult to settle into a deep meditation.
This is understandable and in a way actually appropriate.
Pain is designed to get our attention.
It is designed to make us take action to remove the source or the cause of the pain and therefore settling into a deep grounded meditation can be extremely challenging.
Pain as of all feelings is information and as you move through this meditation if the pain becomes too intense and you're really struggling to stay with the sound of my voice I encourage you to give yourself permission to stop this meditation and do something different.
So let's bring in that attention and that awareness of what here feels like.
Pain can actually be quite sensitive to micro shifts and adjustments so I encourage you to take some time to shuffle and shift and move in whatever way you feel is likely to be helpful.
You may notice that you're a little bit chilly and so a blanket might be helpful or an extra cushion behind your back.
Those little details can actually make quite a big difference and this is part of the practice when we are experiencing pain is to notice and learn and listen about such details and needs rather than dismiss them.
So as you settle yourself into the least painful position or the more comfortable position notice what has worked.
It can be helpful to put that in your pocket so to speak to use another time.
Pain is something that all of us experience at some point in some way.
It is often a feeling that we try and numb or we distract ourselves from it and in that way find ways to make it more bearable.
It can however be helpful to actually bring your focus to the pain to get curious about what it feels like,
What it looks like,
Maybe even what it sounds like.
So they can cultivate two key feelings towards it.
The first key feeling is kindness and compassion.
We always have thoughts and feelings about our thoughts and feelings and more often than not when it comes to pain we can be scared or worried or even angry that we are experiencing it.
So my invitation to you is to notice your self-talk.
How are you talking to yourself or even how are you talking to the pain?
Does that feel helpful?
Does that feel kind?
How can you shift your self-talk so that it's more like something you would say to a loved one?
It may be something like I am sorry that there is so much pain or something like I recognize this is a lot of pain to deal with and experience.
Naming the reality of your experience can be incredibly validating,
Actually speaking the truth of what is going on for you to yourself.
It can be helpful to listen out for any stories we're telling ourselves about the pain,
That it may never end,
That we're not coping.
Whatever it is that you're saying to yourself,
Hear what it is and check is that helpful?
Maybe even experimenting with what might be more helpful.
It could be something like even though I don't know when this pain is going to end,
I am here with myself and for myself.
Or it may be even though I don't want this pain to be here,
I recognize that it is.
Even something like even though I don't know why this pain is here,
I'm open to learning more about it.
Because the second feeling after kindness and compassion is one of curiosity.
Given that pain like all feelings this information actually getting curious about the pain,
About what the pain signifies,
What it's communicating.
It's likely to give you the clues that will help you ease the pain.
And so starting to get curious about the pain,
It can be helpful to explore if this pain were to have a shape to it,
What might that be?
If this pain were to have a weight to it,
What might that be?
Does it feel heavy or light or something different?
If this pain were to have color,
What kind of color might it be?
Getting a sense of the characteristics or the attributes of the pain helps us build a sense of it.
Seeing it as something that we are experiencing rather than something that is about us as people.
Shifting it from our sense of self to an experience can be subtle but actually significant.
Experiences have an ebb and flow to them.
They come and go.
They are more intense or less intense,
A bit like the weather.
And so developing the sense of what the pain looks like,
Feels like and even sounds like.
So if you were to imagine that the pain is like a speech bubble like you see in comic strips,
What might that speech bubble say?
What does that tell you?
Noticing your breath as you are getting a sense of the pain you are experiencing can also be a clue.
Is your breath quite high in your chest,
More towards the sternum or all the way down to the depths of your abdomen?
Shifting your breath can actually subtly help shift your biochemistry.
And so as you shift your relationship to the pain,
That is how you are talking to it,
Is then supported by the shift in your breath which eases your biochemistry.
And those two things together can help take the edge off the pain as well as provide you with the clues about what the pain might need.
The third and final strand is about what we're making it mean.
So sitting with that question,
The fact that I'm experiencing pain,
What am I making it mean?
What meaning am I attaching to it?
It can be interesting to just listen,
Listen to the information that we get from the inside of our own experience.
So just give yourself a moment to observe and absorb what you are learning,
What you are experiencing and how here feels.
You are here with yourself and for yourself.
You have chosen to do this meditation as a way of caring for your own experience.
Notice the love and care in that action.
This is you being here for yourself and this is good.
As always it's more helpful to be curious than critical.
Go gently with yourself.
