Releasing Pain

Hello,

My name is Maya Raine.

Thank you for joining me for this meditation today.

This meditation is designed to help you work through times of pain or discomfort.

Meditation can be a powerful tool for helping the mind find ease during challenging times.

You may not always be able to change your situation,

Your circumstances,

Or your feelings,

But there are ways to help the mind soften.

This meditation is best done in a relaxing environment,

Free from any distractions,

Prepared and ready to spend the next few minutes internally focused.

Begin by finding a comfortable position,

Whatever that means for you and your body in this moment.

Allow yourself to stretch or wiggle or move so that you can eventually find stillness and ease in your body.

This meditation can be done with your eyes open or closed.

Then,

As with most meditations,

Begin to focus on your breath.

Breathing in and out through your nose,

Deeply into the body,

Begin to just observe the quality of breath and the sensations of your breath as you fill up your lungs and empty them.

Regardless of what kind of pain you are in,

Physical pain,

Emotional pain,

Mental pain,

There is a way of allowing the pain to exist without needing to attach so strongly to it.

Many traditions speak about the difference between pain and suffering.

Pain is an inevitable part of the human experience.

Pain in the body when we fall down.

Pain in our emotions when a relationship ends.

Pain in our minds when we judge ourselves or others.

These pains arise and then they fall away.

Suffering,

On the other hand,

Largely comes about when we choose to put our energy into the pain.

Of course,

In the moment of pain,

That is naturally where the awareness goes.

But over time,

As the acute pain begins to subside,

You are able to make a choice.

A choice between continuing to experience the pain,

Reliving it,

Facing your attention in that direction,

Or to turn the awareness somewhere else.

This meditation will help you first to feel the pain as it needs to be felt,

And then to make the choice to let the rumination and the focus go.

First,

Observe within yourself the perception of pain that brought you to this meditation.

What does it feel like?

Where is it stored?

What is the story behind this pain?

Is the pain continuing in this moment as you sit here and you breathe,

Or does the pain live in the past or the future?

As you observe all of these different qualities of your pain or your discomfort,

Continue paying attention to the evenness of your breath.

Inhaling and exhaling as a way of navigating through the pain that arises.

Then,

Slowly,

Begin to ask yourself if this pain is something that you want to continue focusing on.

Is it a requirement that your attention remains on the pain?

Most of the time,

Pain only happens in a moment,

Or pain happens consistently in the background.

However,

Neither of those require your attention.

Is there something that your attention could fix or change or solve about this pain?

Or is your attention just stuck there because the mind doesn't know where else to focus?

Taking a couple big,

Deep breaths now,

Allow yourself to release the focus from directly paying attention to your pain,

And begin instead to start bringing your awareness to the present moment and the things that ground you into your reality right now as you listen to this meditation.

Beginning with using your sense of hearing to listen to the room around you,

To your environment,

And notice what sounds you can hear in this moment.

Maybe they are external sounds of the world around you.

Maybe sounds of air conditioning,

Heating,

Or the buzzing of a refrigerator.

Of course,

The sound of this meditation recording.

Become quiet and still and notice as many sounds as you can.

Then,

Moving on to your sense of feeling,

Your sense of touch.

In this moment,

What are the sensations that exist within you and around you?

Paying special attention here to not label the sensations as pain,

Discomfort,

Dis-ease,

But rather observing them as neutral sensations.

Feeling into your body,

Into the position of your limbs,

The expression on your face,

The temperature of the air on your skin,

Your clothing or hair brushing up against you,

The air as you breathe it in and out of your nostrils,

The beating of your own heart.

And then coming into the sensation,

The sense of smell.

As you breathe,

Can you notice any smells or aromas in your environment?

Similarly with taste,

Do you have any taste lingering in your mouth that you can identify?

And then coming into your sense of sight.

Whether your eyes are open or closed,

What is the quality of the light that you can observe?

Bright or dim?

Is it a color?

Do you see anything in particular?

What can you observe about it?

And then noticing,

After this grounding activity,

That when you are asked to put your awareness somewhere beside your pain,

You are able to do so.

You are able to refocus,

To move away from suffering and into gentle observation.

Regardless of what kind of pain you experience,

The suffering only occurs when your awareness is stuck in the moment of pain.

If the pain is a chronic or consistent feeling in the body,

Beginning to work on labeling it as a sensation rather than giving it the quality of good or bad can help you to move away from the narrative that keeps you stuck with your awareness focused there.

Lastly,

Sending some love and some healing energy to whatever pain it is that you are experiencing.

Focusing once again on the spot,

Maybe the mind,

Maybe the emotions,

Maybe somewhere in the body that you are experiencing your pain.

And instead of looking at it as you usually do with frustration or anger or overwhelm,

Look at it with the eyes of unconditional love,

Compassion for your experience,

Compassion for all that you go through in your life.

Allowing that love to stream in and expanding that blessing of love to anyone else who ever listens to this meditation.

Send it out so that they can receive your blessing and you can receive theirs.

An exchange of compassion,

Of empathy and of healing unconditional love.

If you'd like to take longer to sit in this sensation of awareness and love,

You can do so.

Otherwise,

Begin to slowly awaken yourself back into your body and your surroundings slowly,

Slowly until eventually the eyes blink open and you can look around your environment with a new awareness,

With a new choice to walk forward through your day and your life as a gentle observer.

Thank you for listening to this meditation.

Please come back if you ever feel like you get lost in your pain or you're suffering again.

May you find healing,

Health and happiness.