Transforming pain

Human beings seem to naturally draw away from (aversion) things that are are painful, and desire (craving) things that are pleasurable.  When we look into ourselves more deeply, and sit with both pain and pleasure, we find both are namely sensations.  Nothing more, nothing less.  Yet they can and often do have a powerful message for us, or a lesson in self love and acceptance.

By turning toward our pain, by being curious rather than labeling it as something x, y, z... we turn and touch into it.  I use the word touch in order to denote the importance of not making another story or label around the experience of it.  So for example, rather than taking a medication to get rid of the achey muscles, what if one were to just stop, close eyes and actually go right into the pain with their attention?

What they will find are sensations that at first seem intense, but with enough loving breath flowing there, we may see that actually, after a while, the sensation changes just by being present with it.  All parts of ourselves are calling to us for attention.  Pain is just an exaggerated calling out from our soul that has manifested in our body to get our attention.

Being with the sensation and not running from it is the beginning of making friends with your pain.  Instead of fearing it or rejecting it, we actually do the opposite, we love it, we welcome it in more fully... we allow it to intensify so that we can a) get it's message and b) see the truth of it.  FEAR: False Evidence Appearing Real.  Pain is like any other sensation or thought in the physical realm, it is fleeting.  It is moving, it is energy with vibration like everything else here. 

The sure way keep pain around is to ignore it.  The quickest way to transcend and manage pain is to go into it, with breath and love and gentle awareness.  You can even ask "What are you trying to teach me or communicate?"  I find sometimes it answers, and sometimes it just wants my presence with it, my love, and the "painful" sensation will soften as I soften toward it/toward myself.

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