Using Mindfulness To Reduce Pain

In this session we practice 'Using Mindfulness To Reduce Pain'.

Focus your attention on the sensations of the breath at the nose. If you notice your mind wandering or lost in thought, gently and lovingly return it back to the breath.

When you are ready turn your attention to a point of pain in the body (or feeling of tiredness). Focus on the sensations within, the pressure, movement, and tension.

Maintain your focus on the pain and notice what arises in the mind. Notice the changes. Notice the desire to shift focus.

If the pain is too strong, mindfully move/shift the body or take time to focus on the breath then return to the pain when you are ready.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to the session, I invite you to take a seat or lie down and get yourself comfortable, You can close down the eyes if you wish and just begin by slowing down the breath in through the nose, Low into the belly and slow. In this session we are going to be practising mindfulness meditation, Where we pick an anchor or an object to focus and continually return our attention to it, Your mind wanders and you bring it back, Your mind wanders, You bring it back, Traditionally we use the breath, You pick a point at the nose and when your mind drifts away from it, You bring it back to that point at the nose, That's the entirety of the practice, If you'd like to work with the breath in this session, That's okay, But currently I'm a little bit injured, I've got a little bit of pain in my body, So I thought that it would be a good idea to explore pain mindfully, So if there's a point in your body that is sore, That has tension or if you have an internal state, For example tiredness or something else that you would normally move away from and not want to feel, For the next 10 or so minutes, Let's do the opposite and mindfully explore it, So you can focus on the breath if you like, But if there's a point that is bothering you, A bit of pain, Tension, Tiredness or some other sort of feeling that would make you typically move away that you're averse to, Choose that as your anchor, Turn your attention towards that part of the body, Towards those sensations, And try and feel everything that is arising, And if it's not too intense, Stay there, If you notice your mind wandering, If you notice that push away, The aversion, Notice that too, And then gently, Lovingly return your focus back to that part of the body, Notice that what you're describing as pain or tiredness is actually a collection of symptoms, A collection of component parts, Of tension, Of movement, Of restriction, Notice it coming and going in waves, Get really curious about the component parts, About the shape and the size of the sensations, Where are they located, Where do the sensations end, Can you find the center point where those sensations seem to be emanating from, Note what happens when you pay close attention to the pain, To the tiredness, Did the sensations increase or decrease or shift, If your mind wanders, Gently, Lovingly, Return it back to that part of the body, To that point of focus, In this session we're working with something aversive, Something not pleasurable, So the mind might want to bounce away from it even quicker, If it's tolerable, Continue to return it back to that point of focus, Back to the sensations, Back to really breaking down the pain or the tiredness into its component parts, Back to the curiosity, Once again taking note of your mind space, The thoughts, The feelings, The memories that are also arising, We don't usually pay such close attention to our pain, We push it away, We numb it with medications, We try to avoid it, That's normal and that's okay, But even within pain there is an opportunity for self-discovery and exploration and insight, So really feeling it deeply for one more minute, If your mind wanders, Gently, Lovingly, Return it back to that point of focus, Okay, So in this session we mindfully looked at pain or tiredness, Typical sensations that we tend to avoid or push away or numb, But anything can be used as a point of mindful focus and exploring the breath like we do traditionally, Exploring pain which is aversive and perhaps exploring pleasurable feelings, Desirable feelings, All gives us different insight into our own nature, We typically don't spend the time to discover the component parts of pain, But what you may find is that by doing so, There's a physical sensation that is not pleasant, But it's actually far more tolerable than you would first imagine and in brief there's a concept in Buddhism known as the first and the second arrow, Life you with the first arrow, Pain, Injury, Illness, For example, I rolled my ankle, I have a sore ankle, That is the first arrow, But we tend to shoot ourselves with the second arrow, The thing on top of the first arrow, The worry, The doubt, The what it means, I rolled my ankle, Therefore I can't walk properly, Work will be a challenge, I can't train as much, Etc, Etc, Etc, All of the things that come in almost instantly, The worry about the pain going into the future as opposed to what I'm feeling in this moment now, In this moment now, My ankle is fine, There's a slight niggle, But I know that when I go for a walk later, It's gonna hurt, The first arrow is the niggle now, The second arrow is the future pain that will come and there's a lot of that because it's a big build-up, Right, The future is endless, But if we can return mindfully to what is actually happening in this moment, We will see that often it's not as bad as the collection of future problems that will come potentially from it, We keep bringing ourselves back to the moment, Back to the moment, Back to the moment, Thank you for joining me, I'll see you in the next session.

Reviews

Helpful to be mindful of the pain rather than numb or ignore. Felt as if I was listening to my body. I could let my shoulder rest deeply and this eased the pain to make it more bearable