Insight & Relief For Physical Pain

Hello,

My friend,

And welcome to Move Toward with Jenna,

An approach based on the internal family systems model,

Where we learn to move toward all parts of ourselves with curiosity and compassion.

In today's meditation,

We will move toward a part of our physical body that is experiencing some type of physical pain.

It's important to recognize that sometimes physical pain is just that.

It is a physical manifestation of pain signals,

Receptors in the brain that are reflecting back an injury or a dysfunction in the body.

What can also be very helpful and transformational in our pain experience is recognizing that sometimes our physical pain is a manifestation or the working out of internal parts of ourselves that are attempting to get our attention.

Quite often,

These are parts of us that are trying to help us slow down,

That are trying to help us perhaps stop overworking or over caretaking or over functioning.

Or sometimes they are parts of us that are attempting to receive care and have needed to escalate to physical pain to get our attention.

It's important to acknowledge that these parts of us are not who we are.

They are simply well-intentioned parts of us that often have had to escalate their efforts into physical sensations to get our attention so that we can help them to bring loving kindness and curiosity to their experience so they can be witnessed and their needs can be met.

When we're able to do that from our core,

Calm,

Clear-minded,

Grounded self,

We often find that our physical pain dissolves quite quickly when we are able to listen compassionately to the parts of us that are trying to get our attention through physical pain,

Understand what their concerns are,

And find more effective ways to help them.

In those situations,

They no longer have to try to shut us down with physical pain or sensations and we are much more able to smoothly and seamlessly move throughout our lives.

So as we begin,

Let me invite you to gently ground down into your physical body.

Taking just a moment to turn your attention inward and if it feels right for you,

Gifting your body with one or two deep,

Slow cleansing breaths,

Breathing in loving kindness to your physical body and breathing out anything that you may wish to release.

And as you begin to draw your attention inward,

I would invite you to scan your body from the top of your head down through your face and neck,

Shoulders,

Arms and torso,

Pelvis and hips,

Legs and feet,

And gently become aware or draw your attention to any area of your body that is holding pain.

And notice that this pain may be a sharp shooting pain,

It might be a dull throb,

It might be an ache,

It might be something chronic that is with you on a continual basis,

It might be a pain that is episodic that comes and goes.

Whatever you're aware of,

Just allowing your attention to be with it.

Just noticing this pain,

How it is showing up in your body,

Noticing the nature and the quality of the pain.

Does the pain have a temperature or a texture or a feel to it?

Really allowing yourself to fully be present in a curious space to the nature and the quality of the discomfort that you're feeling.

Now it's very normal when we are in pain,

Whether it's emotional pain or physical pain,

To have parts of us come up that really don't like the pain,

That want to get rid of it,

That might feel quite angry towards it,

Resentful.

And understanding that those parts,

Feelings and perspectives are incredibly valid.

So if you're noticing that you have any of those feelings,

Anger toward the pain or a desire to get rid of it,

Thanking those parts of you that don't like the pain for wanting to help you in such tangible ways.

And letting the parts know that actually the most effective way to help the pain release is when they step back and when they allow you to be with the part of you that may be creating the pain from an open-hearted or curious centered place.

So with deep appreciation and gratitude to any parts of you that may really want the pain to go away or that don't like it,

Extending the invitation to them to settle more into the background of your awareness for just these few moments and allowing you to connect with that deep,

Loving,

Curious place that exists deep inside of you.

And if they are willing,

You'll begin to notice a shift internally.

And you'll begin to notice the ability to bring curiosity to the part of you that is bringing you this pain.

And as you become more open-hearted,

More curious toward the part of you that may be creating the pain,

Really focusing your awareness on the pain with curiosity,

You might choose to invite the pain part to reveal itself to you.

And you may notice an image coming into your mind's eye or the pain might intensify or lessen.

Whatever you're aware of,

If you can just be with it,

With curiosity for a moment without attempting to shift it or figure it out or change it in any way,

Simply being with,

With loving kindness and curiosity.

And however you become aware of the part of you that may be carrying this pain,

Whether it's an image in your mind's eye or simply the physical sensations,

Ask this part of you what it wants you to know about why it has this job of bringing pain to your body.

And don't try to figure it out.

See if anything pops into your mind.

You may want to ask this part of you what it's afraid might happen if it didn't take you over and shut you down with this pain.

You might ask this part of you where it first learned how to try to help you get your needs met by bringing pain to your body.

And just notice if some memories from an earlier time in your life pop into your mind.

And if you did become aware of some earlier memories,

That's this part's way of letting you know that it has been stuck in this burdensome job since that point in time.

It has taken on this role to try to help you in some way and lost access to what it was really designed to be inside of you.

So if it feels right,

Extending compassion to this part of you for how long it's had to be stuck in this very difficult role.

And if you noticed memories of a parent or a caregiver in any way in their relationship to pain,

You might be able to hold appreciation for this part in whatever way it may have learned about relationship to pain by watching and learning from early caregivers in your life.

Having awareness that sometimes pain,

Especially chronic pain,

Can be a generational burden or what we call in IFS a legacy burden,

Something that is handed down to us from a previous generation that really was never ours to carry.

And so as you are really getting to know this part of you that is carrying this pain and how it's trying to help you,

You might wish to ask this part of you if there's anything it needs from you right now to feel just a little bit more comforted,

A little less activated so that it doesn't have to take you over and shut you down quite so much with all this pain.

Is there anything it needs from you?

You may have gotten the sense of a variety of things that this part might need from you.

Some common options would be needing you to ask for help,

Not try to do everything on your own.

Or perhaps boundaries with overworking or overcaretaking or overfunctioning in some way.

Or perhaps this part of you just needs your loving attention.

It probably is not liked by many parts of your system inside of you and perhaps other people around you also don't like this part that is trying to help you in some way.

So it may just need your loving kindness and attention.

Whatever you're aware of,

If anything does come to mind of that nature and it feels like something you can offer this part of you,

Set that intention.

So if this part of you needs you to ask for help or to have boundaries around excessive overdoing,

Setting the intention to take that action so that it doesn't have to shut you down with pain quite so frequently.

And see how this part of you feels with that intention between the two of you.

You'll probably notice this part of you is feeling much better simply being witnessed,

Cared for,

Heard from,

And having its needs attended by your core authentic self.

Noticing that when you in that core authentic self are able to take actions to help this pain part of you get its needs met more effectively,

The pain won't have to take over nearly as frequently.

And when you're ready and this feels complete for now,

Extending gratitude if that feels right or compassion or appreciation to this part of you that's been carrying this heavy burden,

This heavy job of shutting you down,

Slowing you down with pain.

And also appreciating the parts of you from the beginning of the meditation who may really not like the pain and want it to go away.

And inviting all parts of you to regain their natural places.

And allowing this visualization to settle back in your mind's eye as you bring your attention back into the space around you,

Connecting to the sound of my voice,

The support of the floor or the chair or the bed underneath you,

And slowly bringing your attention back to the room around you and reopening your eyes.

You may find it very helpful to spend a few moments journaling anything that you learned about this part of you that carries pain and what it needs from you in order to feel better.

And if you did set an intention with this part of you,

Go ahead and write out one or two action steps to help you follow through on that intention so that you really can enter into a different relationship with the part of you that carries the pain so that you are able to lead internally much more effectively and extreme parts of you won't have to take over to shut you down.

If this way of working with parts of your inner experience resonates with you,

And I hope it does,

I have more meditations on Insight Timer,

And I hope that you'll join me.

Until next time,

My friend,

May our hearts move toward,

May our words move toward,

May our thoughts move toward with curiosity,

Love,

And compassion.

Namaste.

The divine within me sees and honors the divine within you.