We make much effort to not experience pain in our life. Pain is the body's way to indicate that something is wrong, not well or not flowing properly. When we agree to experience pain we bring attention to our body's needs and allow it the space, time and conditions to heal, recover and be at its best.
People who suffer from occasional or constant pain invest a lot of energy and attention in order to avoid and not feel it. In these moments our body doesn't have pain, our body is pain. Many times we avoid pain by not breathing, contracting the body and pulling our attention away from the painful area. Sometimes we do this by taking drugs that numb the pain. Trying to avoid the pain in our body shrinks our attention to the world around us and almost everything becomes about the pain, thus creating depression, low energy, and lack of ability to concentrate and so on. When in pain, our attention is consumed and reduced to the sensation in our body. In these times, everything is filtered through the pain making the pain the focus of our being- our body doesn't have pain, our body is pain.
When we automatically avoid pain, our body disconnects, shrinking our ability to experience reality. When we automatically avoid pain over and over, we begin to disconnect not only from the pain, but also from other sensations like excitement, joy or any kind of intensity creating a very narrow experience of reality. Unfortunately, we do not have the ability to electively disconnect. When our body tries to avoid pain, it shrinks and contracts, thus influencing our ability to experience other kinds of intensities. If a woman suffering from chronic headaches keeps trying to push her pain and her fear of pain away, she will most likely have difficulty to feel excited about a new relationship or a new job. Her body, in time, will lose its sensitivity, intuition and instinct that demand our body to allow the flow of intensity.
Pain can be a result of something that harms or endangers our body, and many times it's actually an effort that the body makes to heal or flow. When we don't avoid the pain we can give our body the space, time and conditions to get well. If we are not suffering from an injury or disease, pain is the body's mechanism to heal and flow. Pain is the body's way of shifting our attention to its needs. Many of us try to push pain away, ignore it, avoid it or try to numb it, but if we allow the pain and let our body expand and experience it, reduce the effort, stop trying to look for a solution; we can support the body's effort to be well. A woman with lower bellyaches during her menstruation can try to avoid the pain, working as usual, rushing and getting things done, trying to avoid the pain. On the other hand she can pay attention to the sensations in her body and support it. She can rest if she so chooses, she can breathe deeply and let go of the area of the legs, lower belly and back, allowing the body's natural flow to happen without disrupting and interfering.
The human body can learn not to react to the pain. We can teach the body not to automatically react to pain by learning how to expand, breath, create silence and relax in the pain. We usually tend to contract our body and disconnect in order to avoid the pain, we say things to ourselves like - Why do I feel pain? Will I be able to handle the pain? Is it too much for me? What can I do to control it so it doesn't get stronger? When will it stop? How will it stop? How can I function as usual with the pain? ; We can learn how to allow pain by paying attention to our body, stop our automatic reaction, learn what we say to ourselves when we feel pain and stop the inner dialog and create silence that will better allow us to let the body recover and heal.
Stopping our reaction to pain can come with a lot of fear. When we allow ourselves to experience and expand with pain, we actually allow the natural flow in our body. Stopping our control over the pain is full of fear- Fear of the unknown, fear that our body is in danger, fear of not knowing how to fix the pain. We can heal and recover much easier if we allow fear to flow.