Recorded this from my phone because I had to get this out my mind quickly. Back to regular mics next week. Apologies ahead of time :)
When you feel pain you cry, when you accept pain you think.
When you feel pain you hurt, when you accept pain you endure.
When you feel pain you blame, when you accept pain you change.
I was deep in stillness this morning, and when you meditate your mind tends to go everywhere. I was thinking about things that happened yesterday, to things that happened when I was 7 years old. Yeah, weird. Either way, in meditation you are taught to not judge these thoughts or feelings, and to slowly come back to focus on your breathing.
I kept feeling this ache in my stomach and it felt like shit. I kept trying and trying to accept the pain, and constantly wondered “what did I eat last night to cause this much pain in my stomach?” I was even more frustrated because it happened during meditation, a time of peace, quiet, and focus.
Through the pain I kept focused on my breath. I tried my best to give it no judgement or emotion. I just accepted the fact that I was in pain, and I can fix it later. I couldn’t let the pain steal the moment. Eventually the pain subsided, and it was only because I stopped feeling the pain, and started using it.
I realized life is just like meditation with a stomach ache. We have these goals, dreams, and ambitions we want to focus on but stomach aches keep happening. No money, no support, depression, divorce, single forever, lack of opportunities, etc.
Much like meditation there is really nowhere to run and hide. The only way to make the pain go away is to go through it. The only way to go through it is to accept it. Once accepted I can get back to the focus I had before the pain popped up to distract me.
It takes me back to the origins of the phrase “roll with the punches.” In the sport of boxing if your opponent throws a punch at your face, it will hurt because you will resist by trying to go against the punch. But boxers are trained to move their head in the motion that the punch is thrown. By doing this, you take away the impact that punch originally had. Boxers (some) transmute that pain into a strategy.
Let’s do the same.
use it as a tool
the difference between feeling pain and accepting it