
Many years ago, when I first began practicing mindfulness meditation, I was looking for a way to be present in the world, with myself, and with others that would help me feel calmer and be happier. Prior to practicing mindfulness, I had explored a variety of other trainings in meditation, but none of them had stayed with me. What was beginning to take hold was the thought, “I guess I’m just not a meditator.” As that thought was starting to undermine my efforts, a conversation with my twin brother about his discovery of mindfulness meditation rekindled my interest in yet another meditation exploration. And I found that mindfulness resonated with me!
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Many years ago, when I first began practicing mindfulness meditation, I was looking for a way to be present in the world, with myself, and with others that would help me feel calmer and be happier. Prior to practicing mindfulness, I had explored a variety of other trainings in meditation, but none of them had stayed with me. What was beginning to take hold was the thought, “I guess I’m just not a meditator.” As that thought was starting to undermine my efforts, a conversation with my twin brother about his discovery of mindfulness meditation rekindled my interest in yet another meditation exploration. And I found that mindfulness resonated with me!
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My “her-story” with meditation calls out the importance of understanding that you are the expert on yourself, as you investigate opportunities to explore meditation, self-care and different approaches to well-being. At the heart of these explorations is discovering what is most suited to your needs and your life. And—spoiler alert—while your needs and your life will change over time, once you understand what mindfulness is and how it works, this practice will nurture you for a lifetime!
Moment-to-Moment Awareness
Mindfulness is moment-to-moment awareness of what is, in a gentle and nonjudgmental way. It’s an intentional awareness. It’s being curious about the moment in a way that can invite clarity, compassion and insight. In mindfulness training, focused awareness is cultivated by sustained attention to the momentary quality and character of sensory, emotional and cognitive events. Recognizing these events as impermanent and changeable without judging or reacting is the open monitoring that brings spaciousness and insight to the mindful moment. Naming the components of mindfulness allows us to apply mindfulness in profoundly practical ways:
- Concentration (ability to focus),
- Sensory clarity (ability to observe experiences as they arise and pass away),
- Equanimity (ability to be gently curious, without judgment).
How Pain Relates to Practice
When I first began working with mindfulness, I didn’t realize that it can apply to everything. As I’ve practiced over the years, my life has changed—and mindfulness has stayed with me. It has supported my well-being in ways that I couldn't imagine. Managing pain is a practical example.
While meditators have long reported that mindfulness attenuates the experience of pain, research has not fully explored this. In the early 1980s, John Kabat-Zinn began his groundbreaking work creating his Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction program and initiating clinical studies of the outcomes.
Exploring the cognitive aspects of pain, it highlighted the understanding that perception of pain is influenced by a number of factors including:
- The kind of attention focused on the experience,
- Beliefs and expectations regarding the experience,
- Mood and the corresponding emotional responses.
As the components of pain have been parsed out, the role of the mind in creating an experience of suffering that goes along with the primary event of pain is better understood.
Pain can be acute or chronic. It may be the surprise of a leg cramp in the middle of the night or the experience of ongoing debilitating lower back pain. It is estimated that 100 million Americans suffer from chronic pain with the most common causes being headaches, joint pain, pain from injuries and backaches. Women are at greater risk than men for developing chronic pain.
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Bringing Spaciousness to the Moment
When pain is present, the body’s reaction is to tighten up as the nervous system fires up. The perception of threat—that the body is in danger—activates a stress response and a heightened state of inflammation. Stress exacerbates and maintains pain. The relaxation that comes with mindfulness meditation, as the breath becomes slower and fuller, calms the nervous system and opens the possibility of exploring new skills in managing pain.
The feeling that we are battling pain and losing can lead to frustration, anxiety and depression when the pain can’t be controlled. Mindfulness invites us to observe the moment, whatever it is, with curiosity so that we can begin to soften around it instead of fighting it. Bringing spaciousness to the observation of pain offers an opportunity to relate to the experience differently.
Examining the thoughts that arise related to pain allows us to see the negative stories and to acknowledge the “pain catastrophizing” that can arise. As mindfulness changes our relationship to the act of thinking, we can begin to see thoughts as impermanent, as mental events we observe passing through the mind. This helps reduce the impact of negative thoughts and attenuate the activation of memories and emotions that are linked to experiencing pain.
Supporting a sense of spaciousness can serve to soften the perception of pain. Although the sensory aspects continue to exist, there may be less perception of distress.
Practicing Mindful Self-Care
Using mindfulness to help manage pain may sound confusing at first. The following example of experiencing acute pain offers a simple illustration as a starting point to support your efforts.
I occasionally wake up in the middle of the night with a cramp in my foot, and it hurts as the toes contort in a way I can’t control. Without mindfulness, I become stressed about the fact that this is something I must endure and don’t know how long it will last. Cortisol and adrenaline flood my body and increase inflammation, and I become angry at my foot as it curls up in pain.
At this point, I'm focusing all my awareness on the sensation of unrelenting pain and adding the energy of anger to the physical sensations. I may even start telling a story: “This happened last week too… This cramp could last for hours… There's nothing I can do… I’ll be up all night.” Now I'm adding drama to the physical pain, and it begins to own me emotionally and mentally, as well as physically. The sensation of the pain itself, along with overlays of judgment, resistance, stories and emotions, create an expanding circle that tightens around me.
But, what if I shift my focus to bring in mindfulness and self-compassion? It's still the same situation: My foot is cramped and there's physical pain. Now, I'm doing something different. I’m focusing on breathing as I inhale and exhale gently and fully, becoming aware of the sensations in the foot without judgment and without stories. In doing so, I’m clearing my mind and calming my body. I'm reducing the suffering that comes from adding emotional and mental overlays on top of physical pain. I'm inviting a relaxation response to begin to defuse the stress reaction.
Breathing gently and fully, I continue to observe the sensations in the foot without judgment. As I begin to bring in a sense of spaciousness to surround the physical sensations, I put my hand gently on the foot and feel compassion for the foot and for myself in that moment. As I begin to soften into the moment, I observe any anger that has come up and acknowledge it, without clinging to it. I stop telling stories because I'm present in the moment. When I use mindfulness to be present with pain, the experience does not own me in the same way it used to.
Using mindfulness to help manage pain gives us a practical way to bring the practice of mindfulness into real life. Starting with smaller aches and pains is an opportunity to learn how this works and how it feels. As you continue to explore, I hope you’ll feel a sense of discovery and continue to expand your ability to apply these skills in your life. As you do so, please remember: You are the expert on yourself!
Nina Smiley, PhD, director of mindfulness programming at Mohonk Mountain House in New Paltz, New York, holds a doctoral degree in psychology from Princeton University. She is the coauthor of The Three Minute Meditator and Mindfulness in Nature, as well as the CD “Mini-Meditations That Will Enhance Your Life.” Smiley has studied mindfulness with Jack Kornfield, founder of Spirit Rock Meditation Center, and Sharon Salzberg, cofounder of Insight Meditation Society, among others. She delights in sharing insights about meditation and wellness, and her work has been featured in numerous renowned publications.