During the last month, I have thought long about Char’s comment, which I’ll paste here for your easy access. Charlene Jones said:
“When pain hits, I go in with wordless dialogue: I find the spot that hurts, or the muscle group, and let it hurt. I just sit and let the pain be there. I consider the pain a friendly option; rather than a more serious situation such as stopping movement altogether, my body wisdom lets me know pain.
I consider the edges of the pain. Where does it start and where does it stop? I consider this in a friendly way, in the way I have learned to consider negative moods, or depression. Let it be and consider its greyness, its darkness. Take an interest in it.“
This is so hard to do: just trust that if I let the pain be, I will still survive and be o.k. As Cecilie Kwiat says, the dislike of the pain is the problem. Not that we need to like pain, but we do need to learn to be neutral emotionally about it. To cultivate a powerful mind that can be conscious of emotional responses to physical sensations, rather than mistaking them for an identity or self with a desperate future and a very sad story to tell.
Consciousness, which has no legs, rides the winds, or emotions, which have no eyes. This Buddhist quote serves as a great reminder to me that my mind must be strong and not blown about by my emotions. I’ve been listening to sound recordings of Cecilie Kwiat teaching in Boise last summer and am so glad for her reinforcement of Char’s advice: When fear arises, and its attendant anger, feel how your body is supported by whatever you’re sitting on. Can you feel how the ground supports that? And relax and just let what is happening be in your body?
She also upped the ante on the wholesome moment practice, recommending that we find and give ourselves six things of beauty a day and recall those with gratitude before sleeping and upon awakening the next morning. And rise to find out what six discoveries of beauty we will give ourselves that day. To strengthen the mind with beauty. Why not.
