Pain - Physical and Otherwise

Pain gets our attention!

Yikes! I did something that has made my back hurt... not as much as it has in the past, but enough to put me in touch with the notion of physical pain and what it does to us, mentally and spiritually.

The short form is: it's not fun!

Physical pain is debilitating... everything slides... work, play, contact with others... all take a back seat.

Prayer tends to become a plea for relief and I find meditation impossible when I'm hurting. (I find myself wondering if the monks and nuns of Tibet meditate through pain and I suspect they do.) Self-pity runs rampant.

Positive action to relieve pain

It's really hard to take positive action when I'm hurting. For instance, with my back, the best thing in the world I can do is sleep, use ice and heat and do a whole bunch of gentle stretching... yoga poses and other stretches I've learned over the years.

Sleep/escape is easy for awhile; heat feels good, but ice! Sure it helps, but... it's sooo cold and I don't like cold!

The yoga and stretching are not easy either... I struggle down to the floor, and struggle back up, feeling awkward and old. In some poses I can hardly get there at all, and in others I have to sort out the good pain of a good stretch from the not-good pain of pushing too hard.

It's really about progress

I want instant relief, but must settle for slow progress. In fact, slow progress seems to be the watch word for all recovery and growth.

Once and awhile we experience an 'ah-ha' that makes for a breakthrough. But much more often our progress is in fits and starts.

Which means we must be on the lookout for the progress we make. If we don't give ourselves credit for change and growth we're likely to feel it isn't happening.

We can watch for progress in a variety of ways. A 10th Step works well when we remember to include the positive. So does simply pausing and doing a brief mental check of what's working and what's changed.

However we do it, giving ourselves credit for positive change is part of the wisdom we're growing into. So stop, and give yourself the credit you deserve.

Love, peace and abundance,