Reminder #9 - The Pain is Unimportant and Powerless

Reminder #9 - The Pain is Unimportant and Powerless.
Why does Dr. Sarno say the pain is unimportant and powerless? Because when we focus on the pain we are not focusing on the way to heal. We have to come at this issue of pain from the other end of the spectrum, the emotional spectrum. When we focus on why we have our emotional issues like tension, stress, worries, strain, personality traits, insecurities, repressions, etc... We are then working in the right angle to begin our reconditioning phase.
We begin to recondition when we realize how powerful our thoughts and memories really are when left unattended. We have to begin to think about what we are thinking about. Often the only way to do this because most of these thoughts are unconscious is through journaling, thus the reason we journal about our childhood, current pressures, and personality traits. We also learn to bring "the why question" to surface when we learn of the knowledge, the way pain is truly produced.
If you are a Goodist or Perfectionist then you are constantly fueling your body with tension and fear. It's OK not to be perfect all the time and it's also ok not to be Good all the time - trying to please everyone. If you constantly try to please everyone all the time because your a good person then you will always feel pressured and the same for perfectionist traits which will only keep you stressed and in pain.
You can be free from these pressures if you think them through and consciously in the now pay attention through awareness to what you are doing and why are you doing it? The answer to why you are doing it will often go back to your childhood, a great reason to journal about your past so you can uncover why you are trying to please everyone and be perfect.
Your current pressures will be tied into your personality traits also, stimulating your reactions, you will learn to have power over your reactions if you focus on your emotions without criticizing, judging or fearing them. Your traits will always be about your ego and your reactions to what the ego feels is right or wrong, you know those thoughts that are always telling you - you should have done that better and why are you not already done with the project or if it's even going to be good enough. Those thoughts, they are part of your ego, ingrained into your subconscious and unconscious but you can also find them consciously when you learn the knowledge therapy I have laid out above making the Pain unimportant and powerless.

Bless you

 

This is fabulous!
For me, I have been able to get away from the pain with heart centered meditation.
Frequently I have been developing pain at work, there are some issues there.
In meditation, I will release the cares of the day, concentrate on my breath, focus on my heart, the location of the inner peace within. I then set the intention to see myself as God sees me, and I will stay in that space for 15 to 20 minutes. It helps to visualize my heart as a clear blue sky. If thoughts arise, and they often do, I picture them as clouds in the sky, impermanent, arising and disappearing into nothingness.
I think the reason this works is because the pain originates in the conscious mind ( in our heads!) so by getting out of my head and into my heart, the pain goes away. As Einstein said, the solution to the problem is not to be found on the level it was created.

 

Herbie - your post is not only full of awesome insight and wisdom, but is very calming and soothing. That's something I still struggle with. Fighting the raging beast churning away in my gut. Thank you, I needed that!!

 

Herbie offers great advice on how make the pain unimportant and powerless.

I've been reading Claire Weekes' book, Hope and Help for Your Nerves, and she says that to relieve anxiety
(which causes pain), we need to do four things: face the anxiety, accept it, float through it, and let time pass.
I am writing an article about her book for this forum and it will be up in a week or two.

Meanwhile, follow Herbie's suggestions to sooth and calm yourself.