Mindfulness for Managing Pain – Part 2

Pain has been OK for me….not as great a struggle as I was led to believe before the operation & I’d call it more aching or discomfort versus pain….I think I’ve been lucky and, perhaps, due in part to my participation in the Mindfulness for Managing Pain program that is teaching me to practice ‘looking at the pain’ as a singular thing versus taking a big, overly big, place in my life, distracting me from the rest of what is going on in my life.

The duration of the aching is challenging to recognize and place into perspective, yet, meditation is a “practice” and worthy of repeated efforts to grasp & notice what is being offered via our teacher.

Our 4-week course was completed recently and I received a questionnaire. The questions asked were revealing in several regards:

·      A question asked if I had experienced a shift in my “value”….did I feel “useless” or “less able to be used”…..I was stunned to notice that these feelings had in fact, crept into my thinking during these past 6-7 weeks since surgery.

·      Another question asked, “have these feelings negatively affected your day-to-day activities?”; again, I was surprised at the depth of some of my brain’s thinking that I had honestly avoided through these weeks. I was not being mindful, present, non-judgmentally, with my thoughts and emotions. I was surprised until reminded via the questionnaire.

·      Another awakening to “habits I had formed” and a newfound/renewed ability to alter these habits by looking at them as habits, mind-games with little value beyond “taking up space in my mind”.

·      I also am reminded that there is often a space between “noticing” pain and “reacting” to it….can we explore that space?

Of unique interest & value were the Daily Logs we used, charting our emotions, either unpleasant, pleasant or through our pain journal. 

By writing down what I observed about myself, I get to “see” the moments of “happenings” either unpleasant, pleasant or thru the pain journal.

You explore the physical and emotional ‘feelings’ therefore naming them, identifying them, something to face, not let swim around, perhaps triggering that reaction versus the response. 

More to follow, take care