A Gift? How Can This Pain be a Gift?

Imagine! Your body is doing you a huge favour by producing that pain. The thing is that you must embrace the pain, feel it and suffer before you can receive its gift.

How often have you tried to wish a pain away? Perhaps you have masked it by taking medication or have had treatments or procedures done to relieve it. The pain may have even become an old acquaintance that you don’t particularly like but accept as part of your life.

I can’t tell you how often I have heard people say things like, “I’m falling apart. I need a whole new body.” or “If I could just get rid of my bad _____, I would be fine.”

Well the fact of the matter is that you cannot get rid of a part of yourself and if you do manage to cut something out or remove a bad part, you are now missing a part of your whole and you still need to suffer and heal.

In our culture it has become unacceptable to suffer. As soon as someone starts suffering, another person jumps in to take it away. We can hardly stand the sight of another person suffering so we stop it before it starts. Our whole healthcare system is geared towards alleviating pain so people do not need to feel it.

When your body hurts, it is calling out for your attention. It needs your attention because it has a message for you. Something is wrong. The purpose of the pain is to stop you in your tracks so you don’t go any further. Some part of your life is not congruent with the rest of you and could be dangerous if you do not address it. It is time to stop, feel your body and take a look at what is going on in your life.

To really receive the gift from the pain you need to suffer with it before you can move through it. To give your body the attention it wants, try the following:

· Lie on your back with your knees bent

· Breathe in your nose and out your mouth

· Place both your hands, palm over palm, on the area of pain or concern

· Direct your breath into this area

· Put your focused attention into the area under your hands

· Define the feeling, shape and size of the pain as accurately as you can

· Make a sound that most resembles the area under you hands (moan, groan or yell)

· Make a sound that you feel this area needs to hear from you ( a peaceful sound)

· With your focused attention right under your hands, ask this area, “What do you want from me?”

· Do not accept, “I don’t know as an answer.” Pay attention to the stupid, foolish or scary thoughts that fly into your head.

· Put your hands on the floor and continue to breathe in your nose and out your mouth, taking inventory of what you feel in your body.

· What does the area of pain or concern feel like now? What is its size and shape?

When you get up, decide on the one action that you must take in your life this instant and do something that moves you towards it immediately. Do this exercise daily. If you do not find a gift in your life from this pain right away, it will show up very shortly after repeating this exercise a few more times.

Remember that pain is a gift from your body. You need only feel it, be present and experience the suffering so you can move through it and receive the gift.