“Life IS pain, Highness. Anyone who tells you differently is selling you something.” The Dread Pirate Roberts.
Do you think that’s true? Do you think life IS pain? Is life SUPPOSED to be painful? What would life be like if we never experienced pain? What if we could change our experience of pain by changing our thoughts about the pain?
What if instead of resisting the pain, and being angry at the pain, and feeling betrayed by our bodies, what if we paused, gave the sensation some space, and allowed our attention to rest there with curiosity, compassion, and without judgment? What would happen? How could your relationship to the pain shift?
By changing our mindset around pain, we can help ourselves stop layering suffering on top of the pain.
If we can start to see pain as a teacher – a messenger who is showing us that something is out of balance in our body, our mind, and/or our spirit, then we can start to change how we relate to it. We may still have the pain, but when we remove the resistance (when we stop fighting what IS), we remove that layer of mental suffering.
The mind is so powerful! Our thoughts and beliefs form the matrix of our world. Our thoughts about pain, stress, and food can effect physical changes in our body. If we see stress as a good thing (e.g. while stress may be difficult in the moment, it’s going to help us get stronger), then stress is less damaging to us. If we see a food as indulgent (even if we consider it a “healthy” food), our hormones will shift and help us feel more full after eating it.
If you dig this topic and want to dive in a little deeper, here is a fascinating podcast from Dr. Andrew Huberman and Dr. Alia Crum where they discuss mindset and how our thoughts and beliefs can change our hormones, our cardiovascular health, and our immune system.
Somatic Experiencing Update
Next week I start the first class of the 3-year Somatic Experiencing Program training. Somatic Experiencing (SE) is a body-oriented therapy that helps heal trauma and dysregulation of the nervous system. I’m drawn to this work because after living mostly in my head for 40 years, I’ve realized that I’m missing out on a lot of the color and vibrancy of life because I feel it’s much safer to live in my head than in my body. And I see this echoed in many of my friends, family, and clients. I’m doing this program so I can continue to build on the tools of bodywork and yoga to help my clients and myself figure out how to live a life in full color, and where it’s safe to experience the full range of human emotion. =
Teaching Update
- If you are interested in learning how to dial down tension in your body with the use of self-massage, movement, breath, and meditation, join me at QC YogaCon on March 5th at 4PM. The convention has an impressive line-up of teachers from all over the country, and the entire focus of the convention is on mental health. The convention runs from March 4 – 6, and the cost is $250. This is a fundraising event for the QC Yoga Foundation, whose mission it is to bring the transformative teachings of yoga to as many Quad Citians as possible. Here is my affiliate link if you would like to register:
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