Mindfulness and Pain

I have to share a discovery I made in meditation last night. I don’t think I discovered anything new. I am pretty sure I had read about this somewhere and took the opportunity to try it out. Anyway, it doesn’t matter where it came from, it worked!!

Yesterday I spent three hours driving in the wind and the rain. The last hour and a half was in the dark. It was the first time I hoped I did not see a moose on the highway. By the time I sat down to meditate last night I was in a lot of pain. I have arthritis in my spine and my shoulders and neck take a lot of abuse from knitting, sitting at the computer, driving, and cello practice. After holding a lot of tension in my shoulders during the drive, I felt like there were daggers in both shoulders, the middle of my back and into my neck. Hot, burning daggers thrust in down to the hilt and then twisted.

The pain became worse as I was sitting still and was starting to affect my ability to relax. Then I thought –where in my body do I not feel pain? My right foot. I started to focus on how relaxed my foot felt and, as soon as my attention left the pain in my shoulders, the pain eased. For the next twenty-five minutes, whenever the pain in my neck and shoulders started to take over, I would redirect my attention to a part of my body that was not in pain and the pain would disappear.

During other meditations, I have tried breathing into the pain and that helps some, but re-directing the pain worked better.

In Buddhism, we are taught that it is our resistance to the pain and suffering in our lives that causes the most turmoil. During meditation I did not resist the pain. I just moved my focus to an area where I was pain free. I wasn’t denying the pain, or trying to push it away. I just changed my focus. I later went back and massaged my shoulders with a good arnica/menthol ointment and took some Tylenol. I gave the pain the attention it needed when I was able to do so, but during meditation I was able to move my focus.

I can apply this to so many areas of my life. Nonresistance does not mean that I ignore the pain and suffering in my life. It means I don’t give it all of my attention and that I remember to focus on the good. I hope that by writing about this I am able to remember this and can help others as well.