Pain Is Your Guiding Light

It is often the case that pain represents the presence of illness, either emotional or physical, and it is normal to believe that all pain is negative. But pain is also a teacher, a messenger directing us to pay attention to our bodies or to move away from behavior and situations in which we are weak to those in which we practice integrity and strength.

Our drug-filled society maintains that most physically and psychologically painful conditions should be medicated away. Television commercials support the use of painkilling remedies for headaches, backaches, and every other symptom imaginable. Undeniably, chronic pain is a serious handicap to living a full life, and it makes maintaining a positive attitude enormously difficult. Yet emotional and psychological pain can also be a signal to pay attention. It can be a teacher, whether it originates in our emotions or our physical bodies. It directs our attention to the physical or emotional area that is begging for repair.

Drugging pain prematurely or too much can be a mistake, because it can mislead us into thinking that we are healing when we are not. Instead of immediately medicating ourselves in every instance, we should examine why we have a pain or a pattern of physical aches and pains. My favorite commercials to dislike are the ones that advertise remedies for upset stomach that you take before you eat, so that you can eat all the greasy, spicy, or milk-based food you want while silencing the pain in your stomach that is trying to tell you that your body cannot digest this kind of food.

[…] If you are ready to turn your attention to entering your pain, you will probably need help—chances are you won’t know where or how to begin. One way to begin is by studying yourself. Pay attention to how many thoughts and attitudes you hold in yourself each day that are painful. Write them down so that you see them in physical form, and recognize the physical damage they can do to your body. You may come to realize that you dwell on painful images of yourself or on pain-filled beliefs about life. You may even realize that you are, at your core, a pessimist, always viewing everything negatively and discounting the positive. Or you may come to recognize that it is not your pain that you are carrying, but the grief of others that you want to protect. It may even become possible for you to understand pain as a spiritual challenge that has come into your life as a means of making your state of mind stronger than you could have imagined possible.

A man named Fred, who came to one of my workshops, revealed that he had started to take painkillers when his back gave him trouble. Although his medication initially brought him relief, he found that as time went on he needed more and more of it. After about a year he told his physician that the medication was no longer effective and asked for a stronger prescription. His physician instead recommended that he do exercises to strengthen his back. He started to follow his advice, but the exercises simply were not working. He then went to a different physician who did give him a stronger medication, but in time even that prescription was “not enough.”

When I asked Fred why he hadn’t taken a look at the reason his back was in such bad shape, he said, “Quite frankly, I didn’t want to be bothered with all that, because it would take too much time and I wanted immediate relief.” I asked him what, aside from his back and drug dilemma, was also causing him stress in his life. He said that he had a history of bad financial investments and business deals and that he was always in search of fast and easy ways to make a lot of money. He had even been involved in a pyramid scheme. The more he failed, the more his back ached.

I asked him why he had failed to see the connection between his financial stress and his back problem. He said that he knew these two problems were related, but he told himself that once he made his fortune, his back would heal. He still believed that and was determined to create financial abundance for himself.

When I asked him why he would attend one of my workshops, given his attitude, Fred said that he wanted to learn how to use “mind power” and intuition to help him make better business decisions. I suggested that his painkillers might be interfering with his judgment, but he insisted that the only way he could make any good choices was to be pain-free. We ended the conversation on that note. I did not have high hopes for his recovery.

On the positive side, Lester had experienced tremendous pain from a tumor in his leg and the subsequent surgery to remove the cancerous tissue. During his recovery period he was given pain medication, which he said he needed because the pain was beyond his capacity to cope. During his effort to regain strength in his leg, his pain increased, and it persisted even when he wasn’t walking or stretching his leg.

Lester continued on his medication because the throbbing in his leg kept him awake at night, no matter how exhausted he was. One night, as he was lying in bed wondering if he would ever recover from cancer and pain, it occurred to him to focus his attention on entering his pain. He imagined himself traveling into his leg to see what was actually taking place underneath his skin.

He put on some background music to help him relax and pictured himself repairing the cell tissue in his leg and communicating the message that all the cancer cells were to be destroyed immediately. With each passing day that he repeated this practice, his confidence grew, and he began to withdraw gradually from his painkillers. Finally he discontinued them altogether, even though his body was still in some pain. He said that he had begun to look at his pain as a “guiding light” that, with each meditation, told him where to focus his attention.

“Through this daily practice, or I should say hourly practice,” Lester concluded, “I actually came to believe, and not just hope, that I could heal my body. I felt my mind get stronger every single day, and I literally felt my body repairing itself.” I had no doubt that Lester was going to make it, and neither did he.

Caroline Myss – Why People Don’t Heal And How They Can

How to do the Magic Cauldron

Every week I am guided to find, select, and present an excerpt of a book or article. In the morphic field all information is vibration; there is a reason if this has come to your attention, you can exercise your free will to be open, receive and integrate the information in your system.

My suggestion is to print the following text and read it once. Read the text a second time, highlighting/underlying words and phrases that resonate with you.

Then place the papers on your chest, close your eyes and imagine breathing in and out of your body through your feet, top of your head and through the papers and your heart centre. This exercise (that we call Magic Cauldron) will attune your heart centre to the information. If you do not have a printer, set the intention to have the imaginary papers on your chest and do the same exercise.

Continue practicing the exercise every day for as long as you are guided to do it.