Meditation for Dealing with Pain and to Alleviate Suffering (79)

This pain is enough. Right now, I don't need to suffer any more than the pain that I'm feeling. So can I let go of that resistance? Hi everyone, and welcome back to how the Wise One Grows. So I don't know if I've shared this with you all before, but today you're going to get to hear the tale of why I really learned that I needed to dedicate myself to taking care of my body and mind, and particularly through yoga and mindfulness. When I was 20, I got shingles in my right eye and almost lost my eyesight. For those who don't know what shingles is, typically, it's not something that happens until you're older like typically over 60, and it's typically caused by extreme stress or a weakened immune system. I didn't think I was stressed at the time, but my body told me that I was. So, after a long process of healing, I've learned how to work with the post-shingles pain, to check in when I'm too stressed and overwhelmed, and to better take care of my body and mind. I've dedicated my life's work to taking care of mental and physical well-being within myself and sharing that support with others. So you can imagine that I had a lot of feelings come up last week when I started to feel shingles pain in my right eye again, almost 10 years to the date of the first outbreak. And when I was in this moment of feeling intense pain in my eye I almost lost my eyesight the first time a lot of triggered stress that came up from it, a lot of worry and anxiety arising. I remembered something while. I remembered two things. First and this is what saves me time and time again was my breath. I remembered to inhale and then to exhale a little bit longer than I was inhaling, taking really intentional, long and slow breaths. And what was wild is I could feel when I wasn't breathing that way, when I was getting caught up in my mind, in my stress cycle, the pain in my eye was worse. When I deep into my breath, I could feel my stress response calming and I could feel the pain in my eye diminishing not going away, but less. And then I remembered Shenzhen Young's equation of suffering equals pain times, resistance. I'm laying on my bed with an ice pack on my eye, trying not to freak out till I can get to the doctor, and I'm thinking to myself like right now I've got like 10 units of pain right and I'm adding like 100 units of resistance because I'm upset that it's here. I don't understand why it's here. I'm mad at myself that it's here. Am I going to lose my eyesight? Is it going to be like last time? Is that cycle going to repeat? And then I'm suffering like way more than I need to. So I was like, okay, this pain is enough. Right now I don't need to suffer any more than the pain that I'm feeling. So can I let go of that resistance? It's here. Can I breathe with the pain? Bring that resistance to zero and not suffer and just be with the pain? So by letting go of the resistance and deepening my breath, I was able to calm myself down, get a good night's rest and go to the doctor first thing in the morning and take the steps I needed to take to start healing. So this last week I've been in a heightened space of really needing to rest and to listen to what my body needs, not what my mind wants me to do, but what my body is truly telling me. And it is so much easier said than done and it requires a lot, a lot of practice, especially in the moments when things are going well, because it's a lot harder to do when things aren't. So today's meditation, we're going to focus on releasing that resistance of whatever pain is there Maybe it's physical, maybe it's mental and deepening the breath, calming our stress response, letting our body and mind rest, reset, relax and then truly listening to our body, and I promise this is what has saved me time and time again. Each time I am in a moment of acute intensity, whether it be physical pain or a big emotional stress, this is the breath I come to, this is what grounds me, this is what carries me through life. So, settle in and find a space that feels safe and supportive for you. And let's get started. So, wherever you are, just start to notice, like physically, where are you right now? Use your sense of sight, name a few objects around you you can gently rest your eyes or soften your gaze, notice where your body makes contact with the earth, notice where you feel the breath flowing through the body, and take a big breath in and a big breath out. Inhale, fill your chest and your belly with air and exhale. Let it all go Again. Inhale and exhale and just notice the rhythm of your breath. Here and come back to this equation Suffering equals pain, times, resistance. So, as you're sitting here right now. Notice what pain is present, because, right, pain is a part of being human, it's a part of life. What pain is here with you right now? Is it a thought that keeps pulling your attention away? Or maybe it's beating yourself up when a thought does? Is it a really intense physical pain? Is it something else? So notice what that thing is and then give it like a number One to ten, give it its units of pain. How many units of pain are alive right now for you? And then think about how much are you resisting it. If it's that you feel like you're not quote-unquote meditating right, are you beating yourself up when the mind wanders? Maybe the mind wandering is like two units and you're adding like 15 units. What is that thing? Was it like? Where you, like me, you had a physical pain and then your mind added a lot of resistance to make it a lot more suffering than needed? So just notice that resistance and how much is that making you suffer? And now I want you to come back to that pain and take a big breath in and a big breath out. So if it's a part of the body, maybe, rather than resisting it, you bring your attention there as you inhale and exhale and slowly begin to deepen the breath as you breathe in and as you breathe out. And as you start to deepen the breath, maybe you start to resist whatever pain is present a little bit less. What resistance can you let go of here? What thing can you drop that is making you suffer unnecessarily? Can you set it to the side? Can you turn those units down as low as they can go, maybe to zero or however close you can get, and then bring it back to the breath, being with this pain, not shying away from it, not running away, not resisting, but sending it ease, kind of like hugging it here. Take a long, slow inhale and a longer, slower exhale and pause Long, slow inhalation, longer, slower exhalation and pause Long, slow inhale, longer, slower exhale and pause Long, slow inhale, longer, slower exhale and pause. Continue to breathe in this way, continue to breathe in this way. Continue to breathe in this way. Continue to breathe in this way and take a moment to scan your body, from your head to your toes right now, and just notice what's present and ask it what it needs. Does it need stillness, does it need movement, Does it need food, water, breath, and as you transition into what comes next. I invite you to honor what your body is telling you it needs for at least a minute. Take a moment, bring your hands to your heart, thank yourself for having the courage to be with your pain, to release the resistance and to suffer less. Let's take one more breath together, in through the nose and out through the mouth, and then you can slowly open your eyes. As you return to this space, I hope that you feel more nourished, I hope you feel like you're gonna suffer a little bit less, and I hope you feel able to tend to and be with the pain. That's a part of life and that you know how to lessen the degree of it, how to calm the nervous system down, to release any unnecessary suffering. There's a lot of pain present in the world today, and it's really tempting to resist it, to pretend it isn't there, to turn our eyes away from it, but we need to be with it To alleviate any amount of suffering that we can, because there's already far too much. So, in addition to supporting this podcast, the Dream Team for the month of October has also supported two organizations that are supporting Relief in Gaza the UNRWA, the United Nations Relief Workers Agency, as well as the ICRC, the International Committee of the Red Cross, to provide aid wherever we can in the Middle East. So thank you for taking care of yourself, for cultivating a community through this podcast and for taking care of the community and taking care of the world as a whole. So, all the members of the Dream Team, thank you so much for your support and for making this impact in the world. Stay tuned for who we will support in November and I'm always open to suggestions for that. So feel free to message me on Instagram at HowTheWiseOneGrowse or at Holly'sazure, or leave it in the comments. So until the next time, I'm making it one breath at a time.