Friday, November 7, 2014

Chronic pain by Ellen Bard (Tinybuddha)

Oct 24 mor


Tiny Buddha

“Pain can change you, but that doesn’t mean it has to be a bad change. Take that pain and turn it into wisdom.” ~Unknown

4. Manage your own “stuff” with boundaries and kindness.

Chronic pain is a challenging condition in many ways, as it’s invisible; it’s not like a broken arm, where your cast clearly shows others something’s wrong so they don’t bump into you.

To other people, I look no more or less healthy than them. When I have a bad pain day, it’s hard for others to know, and they are much more likely to “bump into me.”

We all have “stuff” like this—and it doesn’t have to be a health condition. Invisible stuff—a stressful day, a bad day, grief, loss, pain, rejection—the list goes on.

My relationship with my body has also changed over time. Before the accident, my connection with my body was functional; it did what I needed it to. After the accident, I was angry, and disconnected my mind and body. I even talked about it as another entity: “My body and I have a difficult relationship.”

It took me a long time—and work with mindfulness, yoga, and meditation—to learn to accept my body and just “be” with it.

And rebuilding the shattered relationship between body and mind has also meant learning how to be in my mind (remembering that the two aren’t distinct). Understanding what I need when I have a bad day. Being kind to myself. And also creating self-care boundaries; I don’t have endless energy, and so need to curate it carefully.

Do you know when you’re having a bad day? What do you do to protect yourself? Where are your boundaries? How are you kind to yourself?
Chronic pain was a critical factor in my decision to completely change my life, going from a workaholic management consultant in London to running my own business online, basing myself mainly in Thailand.

It’s helped me to learn (and re-learn!) the lesson of acceptance of “what is,” rather than constantly wishing the world was somehow different.

Because once you accept the now, you can build on that foundation and apply all the other lessons to the next stage of your life, or even just the next day.

Because every moment is a new moment. An opportunity for change. Another start.
http://tinybuddha.com/blog/managing-chronic-pain-5-lessons-hit-truck/


Soul

Read this article and I can relate much to it. To me that's my title of my blog, suffering is blessings.

Eve yoga waking up with stiffness in body and at times pain. After my sadhana which include intense hata yoga body is back to normal. Others didn't know the extent of hard work to get the body into normal condition.

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