Pain. Sometimes it can be hard to explain. Pain. Feeling like you’re stuck in flames. Pain. It’s something everyone has felt or does feel. And the tendency to want to get rid of it is universal. This is something I have been working on myself: Noticing pain, and noticing my habitual reactions to it. Then trying to choose a way of working with it.
When we feel pain or discomfort, it can be easy to turn on the TV, or scroll, or use a substance, or overeat. But these things cause a cycle to continue. We don’t actually grow from the pain, we just numb or distract from it.
Buddhism teaches a lot of about pain and discomfort and leaning into it instead of trying to get rid of it. If we try to understand it and take care of it we might experience growth from it. A great book I recently listened to is “No Mud, No Lotus” by Thich Nhat Hanh. In the Buddhist tradition, there is the mud, and then the lotus that grows from it, and reaches toward the sun, above the water. The mud can be a metaphor for pain and suffering and the lotus grows from it.
When we feel a lot of pain we can work with it by caring for it, moving our body, stretching, writing, talking, singing, chanting, praying, going into nature. So many options. Just remember, pain wants to be heard, understood and cared for.
Wishing you health and strength. Peace.
