Embracing pain?! Why would I want to do that some of you might ask. But bear with me.
Firstly, what exactly is pain. It's a protective mechanism of the body to alert us to danger. It's a survival response. It's essential for life. When babies are born with the rare inability to feel pain, their lifespan is significantly reduced and many often pass before the age of 5.
Pain is therefore necessary. It has a clear purpose. It is not designed to harm us.
So then why does pain become such a debilitating symptom? For those of you who have suffered in pain for years there is no simple answer unfortunately.
However, the road towards recovery and freedom from pain begins with a shift in mindset.
The heavy resistance to pain is often born out of trauma, memories, conditioning, irrational fears, and habitual behaviours. But we can train ourselves to stop resisting the persistent pain symptoms and eventually become unaffected by persistent pain.
This is the work of embracing our pain.
Imagine your pain as a living form. Bring it out of its abstract form. Draw it or visualise it. Contact it's thoughts, feelings, and character. What thoughts and feelings come up when you think of your pain.
You may think about all the things pain stops you from doing. All the ways it shrinks your life. Notice all the uncomfortable emotions that come up...fear, anger, sadness, grief, more pain.
Now see if you can imagine how your pain must be feeling if you're feeling this way. Imagine what it's like being pain and having to fight tooth and nail to be understood and heard.
Empathise with the pain. Understand that its role is not to harm but to protect.
Embracing the pain experience is extremely difficult for many people but it's a necessary step to achieve freedom.
The fear that you may have to facing and feeling the pain may be the main barrier blocking you from healing.
Let's aim to soften to our pain rather than resist. Let's aim to embrace and love our pain for the role it plays in our lives. The protector.
Instead of fighting against our protector, let's embrace our protector.
Please reach out to me at connect@raychenzen.com if you need help embracing your pain.
Warmest,
Ray
P.S. Check out my FREE guide if you haven't done so below: https://raychenzen.ck.page/33101a42a0
P.P.S. Book to see me here
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