Your body is a bridge that carries you from your inner life to the outer world. I read this comment this morning from The Book of Awakening by Mark Nepo.
This statement suggests that your pain (physical, emotional, psychological, spiritual) has something to say to you about how you perceive your life. Your pain is offering you a place to explore change. As I often say, and certainly experience, nothing changes if nothing changes.
Do you want something in your life to change? Then, name your pain. Is it physical, emotional, psychological, or spiritual? Maybe it’s a combination of these. Do you want to experience a shift in how you experience this pain in your life?
You may, or may not, be able to change the actual pain but you most certainly can change how that pain shows up in your daily life. For example, people with severe physical pain have been able to lessen their experience of the pain through self-hypnosis. When the pain is measured it has not changed, but the experience of it has. Self-hypnosis is a type of meditative state. Another type of meditative state is mindfulness or being in Present Moment Awareness.
Learning to meditate or shift your awareness in relation to pain, shifts your relationship with it. In some cases, this shift brings on a healing quality or brings to the surface a way the pain can actually be of service in your life.
Try this writing exercise:
1) Name your pain. (I suggest starting with a small painful situation you’d like to address – physical, emotional, psychological, spiritual).
2) How does it negatively impact your life?
3) When did it first appear in you life?
4) Did it ever serve a purpose? (This is not saying it was good for you, but it may have helped you take better care of yourself, or to leave a damaging relationship, or encourage your to exercise more.)
5) How would you like your relationship with this pain to change?
6) Now take a moment to simple notice what you feel in your body. You may want to take several deep breaths, with each paying attention to the quality of your breath.
7) If you could have a conversation with this pain, asking what it is trying to tell you, what would it say? If it is negative, just notice with compassion for yourself, for your pain. Ask again, what is it trying to tell you, what habit would it like you to change, or what action would it like you to take?
8) Take several more deep breaths. Appreciate yourself for wanting to have a different relationship with your pain.
I invite you to spend more time in the present moment and watch how your relationship with your pain shifts. All pain can provide a place to make significant positive changes in perception and reality (which is of course just our individual perception).
Jan facilitates national workshops for therapists and life coaches. She presents at conferences on topics related to holistic psychology and living your dreams.
