PAIN

pooja's lovely mail has got me thinking about the nature of pain. that pain exists in two dimensions - the physical (rooted in the body and stored as somatic/muscle memory) and the non- physical (mental, spiritual, emotional). the non-physical is of course more nebulous, more hard to reach, to pin down, to understand, to make 'sense' of. it largely belongs to the domain of the mind and is subject to its infinite idiosyncrasies. and yet that's the level we grapple with most of the time in our attempt to make 'sense' and thus acquire some degree of control. whereas the physical aspects/manifestations of pain are rather more concrete. here, with a little bit of attention, one can actually 'sense' the pain. ('sensing' is after all a physical process as the senses are rooted in the physical body, and therefore it makes sense that 'making sense' be a physical process too!). and then it suddenly becomes more tangible and less abstract and often a trifle easier to deal with. you know, i've tried this - and not just with pain - but with all kinds of 'undesired' emotions (fear, nervousness, anxiety, shame, etc) - this process of trying to recognise where in my body do i feel the pain/discomfort and then trying to ease it - making it more comfortable - much like stretching a stiff muscle or gently working on a cramp - by paying attention to it, listening to it, singing to it, dancing with it - persuading it to smile again! and when the body smiles again can the mind resist?