Mindfulness Approach To Pain

We hate pain. We do everything we can to avoid it, to numb it, to just get rid of it.

Pain Hurts. It makes us tense up.

The mindfulness approach to pain is different. We learn to be with our pain. We learn to transform our relationship with it, and somehow, it doesn’t bother us so much.

In mindfulness meditation we notice our sensations, moment by moment, without labeling them good or bad. We become curious about the details of our sensations. When we do that, we become detached from them. They don’t impinge on us they use to. We are able to relax.

With mindfulness meditation we may not stop the pain, but we will stop the suffering. And to the extent the pain is stress induced, we will reduce the pain, as we relax and allow it to be there.

Often, as we begin mindfulness meditation, the pain seems to get worse. That is because, perhaps for the first time, we are not running from it. We allow ourselves to experience it fully. Soon, though our experience gets better, and it keeps getting better.

My two favorite teachers of the mindfulness approach to pain are Jon Kabat-Zinn and Shinzen Young.

Shinzen Young has a great article on his site, called Break Through Pain.