What? Pain? A friend? You’ve got to be kidding me?!
If only.
Do you sometimes get overwhelmed by pain? Emotional or Physical? Perhaps it’s debilitating and long term. I’ve been there. In both cases. For sensitive souls, painful emotions can feel crippling if you’ve not learned how to speak their language. Ultimately, it is a sign calling for your attention and asking for something to change.
Here are three insights I’ve gained through my own self-healing work:
1) Do Not Reject Pain as An Enemy
When you do so, you disassociate from the experience of it. This mental resistance intensifies the feeling causing you more unnecessary suffering. You’ll notice how the pain controls your thoughts and therefore your reactions.
2) Surrender To The Feeling
Give it your undivided attention. It is an energy that is speaking to you. Listen. It has a message. Pain is a mantra. Breathe into the repetitious sensations and relax into its discomfort; just like in life as you ride the waves of change, so as in your emotional and physical body, you go with the flow. Meet it with the same presence it is showing up in you.
3) Observe And Communicate With This Energy
Personify it, even. Befriend the emotion by giving it your complete acceptance. Open a channel of awareness and keep a dialogue going. Once you’ve learned how to communicate with it, the pain loosens its grip on you and its intensity lessens.
See if this works for you the next time you’re in emotional turmoil or long term physical pain. I won’t lie; it’s no easy thing. It requires some bravery – a warrior spirit, and a willingness to not deny your present experience.
When you welcome pain as a friend you suffer less and you move towards creating a stronger relationship with yourself.
If you don’t take it from me, take it from this beloved poet:
“The Cure for Pain is in the Pain.”
~ Rumi
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