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Use Mindfulness to Relieve Suffering Without Painkillers
By Kevin Schoeninger
The Secret to Suffering-Free Pain
A growing body of research has applied meditative mindfulness to pain with astonishing results. (For
example, Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn's MBSR approach.) The secret is the separation of the raw sensation from
the interpretation of the sensation.
Let's look at how this works.
Separating Pain from Suffering
The next time you experience pain, whether physical or mental-emotional, try this experiment:
1. First, acknowledge the pain and locate it, rather than turning away from it. Focus inward and turn
your attention to where the pain is centered. Even if the pain is emotional, you may find it resides
somewhere in your body, perhaps in your gut, solar plexus, or your heart.
2. Mindfully notice the details of the raw sensation: Does it have a size, shape, color, texture, sound,
smell, or taste?
See if you can set aside your secondary reactions to the pain, your story about it, such as, "This is the
worst pain ever." "What if it never goes away?" "What if I have cancer?" "What's going to happen to
me?" and so on... and just focus into the raw sensation. Notice that when you focus into the raw sen-
sation, it is just a sensation, and you can handle it. It's just a sensation like any other sensation. As you
pay attention to the raw sensation of pain, you'll begin to notice subtle shifts in how it feels.
If you notice thoughts, stories, fears, judgments, or other secondary responses, let them go, and re-
turn your attention to the raw sensation of the pain. See if it's possible to relax into the sensation, ra-
ther than fighting it. Relaxing eases pain, fear and resistance increases it.
3. Breathe around the area, then into it. As you breathe in, imagine your breath gently surrounds the
painful area, bringing a sense of spacious ease there and, as you breathe out, imagine you release any
pain in the surrounding area in your out-breath. Once you are comfortable with breathing around the
pain, see if you can draw your in-breath right into the center of the painful sensation. Imagine your
breath brings a sense of spacious ease that infuses and disperses the intensity of the painful sensation.
Then imagine releasing the pain out of your body in your out-breath
Continue breathing in this way and notice any shifts in the sensation.
4. Ask your pain if it has a message for you. Ask it, "What are you trying to tell me?" Notice any words,
feelings, images, or actions that come to mind. How does this pain connect to what is happening in
your life at the moment? Adopt a curious attention and see what you notice.
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