When we experience pain, be it emotional or physical, a few processes naturally occur in us as a result. These processes appear as as an inner voice, or mind as we may choose to call it.
For example, if I have a back pain, the mind says “I am feeling pain in my back”. All my attention then goes to my back to observe this pain. Immediately, my ego/conditioning Fear-mind will jump in and say many things- “I hate this pain, why do I have to feel this, this needs to end right now; I have too many things to do to be feeling this pain”. Or some version of this dialogue starts to appear internally.
If I have not been self-reflecting and have not developed a healthy relationship with my spirit, or with my ego, this voice is the only one that predominates, and eventually this physical pain will become suffering. I will suffer with this back pain and it will take a hold of every aspect of my life.
In the case where I have been self-reflective and have developed healthy relationships with both my ego and my spirit, I will hear another internal mind-voice, this one from a place of Love. This voice will say “I love you my human body, I am sending you a lot of love especially to the pain in the back area, I am covering all the pain in love”.
The next natural step is to examine what to do to reduce this pain. Ego-Fear will come up with multiple things to do and methods to manage this pain, “I need to make this stop; this will work, then this then this, I need to stop all I am doing and manage this pain before it becomes chronic, oh my God I cannot live with chronic pain”. While the momentum behind finding solutions to manage the pain are positive, and caring, the ego-fear-frenzy is anything but positive and will result in a not-enough state of suffering.
In listening to the loving spirit mind I can find kindness, acceptance and love for the pain I feel and allow all methods of self-care to be seeped in love rather than an ego-dictated outcome. While my inner ego critic may keep sending hurtful messages, I can choose to be aware of this, yet keep heeding love and spiritual guidance to heal and recover.
In the end the outcome of whether I have resolved the back pain is not important, the process of sending my pain, acceptance, kindness, awareness and love is what matters.
Thoughts?