Pain

We can avoid or ignore pain during the demands of a busy day, but it is while lying awake at night with nothing to distract us that our pain appears to become far worse. We want to know how long is it going to last and when will it be over. While an overactive mind conjures up awful possibilities, we lie awake, restless and frightened at a time when our body desperately needs sleep.
Stephen Levine, a well known American psychologist and lecturer, has worked with hundreds of people, who suffered acute pain and many of whom were facing death. He has helped them to accept their pain and mortality by relating to it in a completely different way. In every instance, when we experience pain, we attempt to push it away by tensing and tightening our bodies. This resistance greatly amplifies our pain.

Stephen has developed a dynamic meditative technique for meeting pain that completely reverses this tendency to resist. He renames pain “sensation” and shows that by bringing our attention deep into the “changing sensations within the body”, and gradually releasing the “hardness” around this sensation, we can “open and soften” to allow these sensations to change and transform all by themselves until they “float” in the acceptance of a “new softness”.

I have used this meditative relaxation technique many times working both with myself and my clients and I find it invaluable. Many people are surprised at the benevolent changes it brings about. It uses deep breathing which by itself releases many toxins from the body; it quietens the mind and soothes the body. Consciousness heals. By bringing our conscious awareness into our pain, we energise it and open the way for profound healing.

 
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