R.E.A.L Pain Relief

Find relief from physical or emotional pain through the acronym "R.E.A.L": recognize, experience, accept, and let go.

Transcript

Welcome to this calm your mind open your heart meditation.

I'm Victoria and today we'll be looking at real pain relief.

So we'll start by just settling in and getting comfortable.

Allowing yourself to move or adjust in any way you need so that you have a tall erect spine and are sitting in a comfortable position of ease and wakefulness.

Notice your face,

Noticing any tension.

Noticing down your neck and your shoulders.

Scanning down the rest of your body,

Just simply being curious about what sensations are showing up for you in this moment.

Perhaps you have an aching back or a tingling foot or a knot in your shoulder.

Whatever sensations arise,

Just be with them and allow them to come up and put your full awareness on them.

Practicing what we call bare attention,

Where we just simply see our experiences without trying to change them.

So for this meditation on working with pain,

We'll be looking at an acronym called real,

Real pain relief.

Where does it come from?

It comes when you turn toward,

When you lean in,

And when you open to the moment to moment experiences of pain with kindness and compassion.

Learning from your pain rather than shutting it down and trying to make it go away.

When you invite even unpleasant or unwanted experiences to be your teacher,

You'll find that your relationship to pain and your experience of it changes in a dramatic way.

We'll begin with the letter R.

Recognize.

Recognize what emotionally or physically painful sensations are coming up for you.

And name or label them.

Go further in your recognition and look into what story you're telling yourself about the pain.

It's typically one of these.

Anger,

Catastrophizing,

Sadness,

Blame,

Or stoicism.

Our tendency when we feel pain is to make it go away or avoid it.

So notice if you're resisting the pain or trying to force it to be what it's not.

So take a moment now to just recognize what's coming up for you.

The E stands for experience.

So now get curious and experience the sensations that are showing up in your body.

Notice the story you might be telling yourself and see if you can let go of it to only focus on what's happening physically inside of your body.

Experience each moment as a new sensation.

Try to be curious,

Wondering,

Hmm,

Isn't this interesting?

Isn't it amazing how much pain and anguish I create for myself?

Isn't it wondrous how much pain the body can actually handle?

Name each sensation you experience.

It could be burning,

Tingling,

Pulsing,

Throbbing,

Stinging,

Aching,

Or many more.

Experience each sensation non-judgmentally.

When you experience thoughts and emotions along with the physical pain or the emotional pain,

Bring awareness to them without getting caught up in them and then return to noticing the physical sensations.

Get really curious about if your thoughts or emotions cause the physical sensations to change in any way.

Practice breathing into and out from the source of the pain and notice any changes that occur.

The A stands for accept.

Pain of all types is a messenger.

It has to be accepted,

Acknowledged,

Encountered,

Moved through.

If we ignore it,

It festers and lingers because what we resist persists.

So now acknowledge,

Accept,

And allow your current experience to be what it is.

Even if it's unpleasant,

Allow it to just exist.

All emotions and sensations are okay.

Acceptance doesn't mean you like what's happening.

It simply means you understand that it is happening in this moment and you surrender to the understanding that it's beyond your control.

You aren't trying to fix this pain or solve any problem.

You're simply resting in awareness.

You can also use the practice of sending loving kindness and gratitude to let go of any stories you might be holding onto or any resistance you might be feeling.

Learning to be as kind as possible to yourself in the midst of pain can help you learn to be more mindful of it.

You might even imagine holding this painful part like you'd hold a small child or someone you love.

The L stands for let go.

Recognize that this pain is not you.

Know that it is impermanent and it will quickly change.

It is not your pain.

It is the pain that you have right now.

Notice that your awareness of being in pain is not in pain.

Notice that other parts of your body don't feel pain,

And in fact they feel neutral or maybe even pleasant.

Try to recognize your pain as the emotion or the sensation rather than my emotion or sensation.

Notice now that the pain you feel in this moment isn't composed of the same sensations you had even just a moment ago.

The pain changes.

It transforms.

So allow it to do so.

Perhaps using a mantra,

This too shall pass.

I am experiencing this,

But it is not me.

I am the one who notices.

So we'll take a moment now to just reflect on real pain relief,

Considering how it can be used in everyday life for the strong emotions that you feel,

For the physical pain you encounter.

Whenever you're ready,

You can allow your awareness to rest and just simply notice your breathing.

Just see if it's slow,

If it's quick,

If it's deep,

Or if it's shallow.

And begin to just bring some gentle movement back into your body.

And whenever you're ready,

You can open your eyes.

Thank you for listening to this calm your mind,

Open your heart meditation.

Have a wonderful day.

Reviews

This was so relaxing since i have an ear and troath infection .Namastè.

That was excellent and something I'll be sharing with others in a meditation group tonight 🙏❤️

Thank you for the reminder, "I am not my pain."
Thank you for the reminder to "stop trying to fix my pain, stop struggling & to be gentle with my pain."

✨Thank you kindly ♥️ for your helping get thru different difficulty with pain and health physical and mental , several heart surgery 🙏🏼 💞💚blessings 💙
Namaste 🙏🏼🌸🌿🌺🌠

I totally understand what u r saying. I have chronic pain in most of my body. It never goes away except with meds. How do u deal with that. Emotions have a lot to do with, I understand. I really enjoyed this and will listen again. bookmarked. Hugs.

I'm constantly training and pain is a familiar thing in my life. Absolutely love this REAL meditation. Such a brilliant idea to see pain as a wonderful happening on your body. I think I know better how to move on with pain. Thank you so much, Victoria.

Perfectly wonderful. Thank you

This practice has helped me change the way I feel about my pain.

Very helpful in looking at pain in new ways. Thank you!

Helped tons!!! Thanks!!!

Needed this today! Gentle meditation and so helpful...will listen to it again and again as needed! Thank you for bringing awareness to pain! 💞

Thank you. Deeply grateful 🙏♥️

This is so good for healing. I love the acronym and I’m planning to use it anytime I experience physical or emotional pain. Thank you so much for using your gifts to create this meditation to help others transcend their pain and suffering. You’re a blessing. 😊❤️🙏

This is a meditation that I will return to frequently, to practice and learn how to fully develop the skill of changing my relationship to pain.

Soothing words and voice. Thank you, Victoria. Namaste.🌸

Very nice, I really like the way you explain things. Thank you for sharing!

Thankful for you help 🙏🏻

very emotional. I am hiding and holding on to so much grief and pain I hurt everyday and this meditation made me understand a little bit that what I am holding onto is hurting me but to let go is not where I am at right now but this was great

Thank you for creating this wonderful practice

Thank you for this. A short & very sweet session that has left me feeling a lot more positive about my head cold & sinus pain. 🙏🌸💕