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Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Facing Pain



Pain is probably our greatest educator and can be used together with every other
experience in the quest for higher life, Kahlil Gibran, the Lebonese poet and mystic,
described pain as "the breaking of the shell which encloses our understanding". It
must be understood that the experience of physical, mental and emotional pain leads
to an expansion of our consciousness if we accept and use it positively.

The pain of life is removed when we expand and liberate our consciousness. Actually, it is not the pain we remove but its ability to hurt us. For in the blissful experience, pain and joy fuse so that all experiences of life lead to higher awareness. By seeking to create a world devoid of pain we are also removing the possibility of joy, for they are interdependent. We can only appreciate joy when we have experienced pain.
They are two extremes of the same experience.
<                      - Swami Shankardevananda Saraswati (http://www.yogamag.net/archives/1979/emay79/painrel.shtml)

Pain is something that we all experience from very early on in life.  Because we have this incredible human nervous system we experience many nuances and degrees of pain and pleasure.  We tend to like the pleasure and to hate the pain.  This opens us to the psychological level of pain experience.  The reality is that we go through a mixture of painful and pleasurable experiences through the course of life.  You don’t get one without the other.  Yoga encourages us to develop a stoic attitude towards both pain and pleasure.  The Bhagavad Gita extols the attitude of samatvam, or equanimity in the face of both painful and pleasurable experiences.  Interestingly, in my experience this attitude of openness and acceptance reduces the impact of pain and enhances the experience of pleasure.
On the physical level pain is the result of nerve endings being activated through some stimulus such as a cut, burn, etc.  This information is conveyed through the spine to the brain where it produces an immediate and unconscious reaction.  Our conscious awareness catches up a fraction of a second later.  In the case of chronic pain the stimulus is prolonged and seemingly constant.  This can be called the “objective” aspect of pain.  The subjective aspect has to do with our thoughts and emotions related to the painful stimulus.  Our psychological response to pain is of tremendous importance to our overall level of suffering.  Remember: “Pain is inevitable but suffering is optional.”  What we think, what we say to ourselves and others about our painful experiences is of crucial importance. 
If I say, “Oh my God this pain is unbearable!  I can’t stand it!  I hate it!” this only reinforces the power of the painful experience in my consciousness.  If I say, “This is a signal that something is amiss in my body and I must attend to it,” or “This is just an experience as my body heals.” or something more positive and rational, than my internal experience of the pain can change dramatically.  For the Yogi pain is simply a reminder to expand her conscious identity beyond her body and her circumstances.  Meditation helps us to develop a deeper, transpersonal sense of self in which we can say, “I am not this body.  It is only a temporary vehicle for my consciousness to evolve.  Pain does not belong to me but to my body.” 
From an “enlightened” perspective we can see that pleasures, pain and death are parts of an inevitable “cycle of life.”  The true spiritual aspirant has to be more on guard with pleasure than with pain.  Pleasure can suck us in and seduce us into wanting more while avoiding its alternative.  This is actually the true “gateway” to addiction.  On the other hand pain is a reminder to work on expanding consciousness, developing nonattachment or “witnessing awareness.”  “Counterintuitively” enough, a true spiritual aspirant does not seek to avoid pain but to use it as a means of awakening.  Meditation practice is crucial.  We need to cultivate our ability to witness or observe ourselves objectively.  We need to be able to “turn subject into object.” 
This process of nonattachment takes place through the koshas.  First we learn to observe and dis-identify with the body, then emotions, subconscious cognitions, and even with the intellectual ability for meta-cognition.  Finally we arrive at the anandamaya kosha, the embodiment of pure awareness/bliss.  This is the state of the observing self in and of her/himself.  It is our true inner nature – bliss beyond suffering.  It is our ultimate and most basic being.  Yoga practice - postures, pranayama, meditation, devotion, discrimination – is all aimed at helping us to connect with this most basic aspect of ourselves.  This inner self is beyond suffering of any kind.  As Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, “All loss, all pain, is particular; the universe remains to the heart unhurt.  Neither vexations nor calamities abate our trust. No man ever stated his griefs as lightly as he might. Allow for exaggeration in the most patient and sorely ridden hack that ever was driven. For it is only the finite that has wrought and suffered; the infinite lies stretched in smiling repose.”  Our inner self is connected to its infinite source.
The importance of systematic relaxation in pain management cannot be overstated.  Chronic pain causes muscles to develop chronic tension.  It creates a feedback loop in which pain creates tension and tension creates further pain.  Unless we can learn a technique of conscious relaxation there is no way of breaking out of this cycle save for addictive and potentially toxic medications.  Yoga nidra is the most potent relaxation practice that I have come across.  Research has shown it to effective in managing pain and its associated problems: insomnia, depression and over-reliance on harmful medications (http://www.yogamag.net/archives/1979/ajan79/nidpain.shtml.) 
Yoga nidra as well as some other relaxation techniques has the added value of helping practitioners to have an actual experience of the power of mind over body.  We are not helpless victims of our physiological responses.  Through deep relaxation and visualization we can experience the reality of our inner being in a way that transcends theory or ideology.  We can experience our infinite self lying in smiling repose. 
Yoga nidra is a guided practice of deep relaxation with inner awareness.  It begins with a systematic rotation of awareness throughout the body. This is followed by focusing on “the pairs of opposites,” heaviness/lightness, hot/cold, pain/pleasure.  This is a powerful means of developing a nonattached, witnessing attitude to experiences.  The next stage involves visualization which can take many forms.  Places in nature, spiritual or archetypal symbols work well.  The specifics of the visualization are not as important as developing the ability to concentrate on the inner experience of the mind.  Not only does this redirect attention from the pain but it also empowers us to create our own experience.  The subconscious mind does not distinguish between and “actual” and a visualized reality.  Thus visualization is a powerful tool for “reprogramming” the mind.  Over time it helps us to develop new and more positive neural pathways through neuroplasticity. 
Even more important is the quality of mindfulness which underlies all meditation practices.  This is the ability to observe, or witness ourselves with nonattachment.  It is the ability to reflect upon our inner experience without judgment or reaction.  It takes practice but the incredible sense of liberation it brings is worth it.

Resources:

The most important resource on yoga nidra is Swami Satyananda Saraswati’s book Yoga Nidra (http://www.amazon.com/Nidra-Re-print-Swami-Satyananda-Saraswati/dp/8185787123/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1349211043&sr=1-1&keywords=yoga+nidra+by+swami+satyananda+saraswati)  It gives step by step instructions for guiding the practice along with a series of recommended visualizations.
      Another recommended article in Yoga Magazine is Yoga Nidra: A Healing Practice for People Living with Cancer by Julie Friedeberger (Priyashakti, UK) (http://www.yogamag.net/archives/2008/dapr08/yn.shtml)


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