I want to begin sharing some practices that have been particularly useful in navigating my relationship with pain, fear, and anxiety. To describe these practices without offering any additional resources for engaging with them feels like a job half-done, so I’ve decided to share a few guided meditations related to today’s piece. I don’t have any formal training as a meditation teacher. I just have my experience as a meditator and my experience working with chronic pain over the last two years. However, just as I’m sharing these pieces of writing as someone who is healing, and not as a healer, I want to similarly share these guided meditations as a fellow meditator and a friend, rather than as a teacher.In the practice I'm sharing today, you're encouraged to either bring your mind to a part of your body that is separate from your pain, or alternatively, to let your mind expand beyond your pain and gently hold your experience in its entirety.By exploring the way in which you relate to neutral or pleasant sensations in your body, you might then use this relationship as a template of how you might eventually come to relate to your pain and discomfort with a calm acceptance. Bringing your mind to alternative sensations and experiences can also help contextualize your pain and discomfort as just a part of a much larger whole.I hope this meditation helps you find a little more peace, relief, and equanimity amidst your challenges.
So glad we got to talk yesterday! Once again you articulated this episode extraordinarily well! Deeply appreciate your sharing your journey!! Holding you and your family in my heart.
So glad we got to talk yesterday! Once again you articulated this episode extraordinarily well! Deeply appreciate your sharing your journey!! Holding you and your family in my heart.