Dealing with Pain

Last week a new client came to me. A seventeen-year-old girl suffering from pain in her arm. A year ago she slammed her hand through a door-a glass door. The glass shattered. Blood gushed out. They raced her to the hospital. The glass missed a major vein my millimeters. It missed a major nerve by millimeters. A year later her hand still hurts. Her physical therapist told her she needs massage and so her mother called me and two days later they came for a session. I told this young woman. “Do you realize that the pain you are feeling is a miracle? The pain means you can still feel! Your hand is connected; it’s still attached. This part of your body is still alive. You’re not numb!”

I massaged the hand, the arm, the neck and the shoulders increasing blood circulation, releasing tension, and promoting self-healing.

Pain comes to us to let us know something is wrong. When there’s pain, there’s a lack of movement. A flow of blood, lymph, neurons, or energy is stuck. Pain also comes to tell us that we’re still connected, still alive, still here. Pain is a חסד.
Take one minute and close your eyes. Breathe in through your nose to the count of four. Hold the breath for two. Exhale for four with your mouth. Feel your body release as you let every tense muscle go. Scan your body. Where do you feel pain? Tension? What is that pain telling you? Is it telling you to pay attention to a part of the body that you usually ignore? Is something stuck? Connected or disconnected?

Do the exercise again. This time as you exhale feel the pain dissipate. Feel the flow. Don’t ignore the pain, don’t try to cover it up. Embrace the pain for the message it is telling you and now as you breathe in and out again, let it go.