No pain, no gain

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/magazine/story/0,11913,992655,00.html



We all hide our hurts, says Barefoot Doctor, but there can be
ecstasy in our agonies

Sunday July 6, 2003
The Observer

Working on my new book recently, I've been sitting hunched over for
50 hours or so, bashing away at the keys. Yes, hunched, even with
all my experience of postural adjustment - so call me a fake, but I
defy anyone to find a posture that works for your back when you're
typing for extended periods. The upshot was that I managed to weaken
my lumbar region so much I could barely walk, barefoot or shod, more
than a few steps without causing myself rip-roaring agony.
As fate would have it, I was sequestered in my windy hillside
hideaway in Catalunya, many kilometres from the nearest
chiropractor, and was thus forced to make the best of a bad job,
taking each small step with utmost gingerness as I went about my
business in the nearby town, eliciting looks of deep empathy from
very old men.

With a fair amount of time spent lying on my back, head supported by
a book, knees bent and facing skywards, allowing my lower back to
settle into the floor, along with a few self-administered
acupuncture treatments and a couple of half-effective spinal
adjustments, I fixed it enough to get back to London and am now
almost right as rain.

But what it showed me, yet again, was how amazingly arrogant I'd
become - how much I'd been taking my health for granted, but also
how little compassion I'd been feeling for the pain of others. If
you'd seen me driving along you'd have just thought I was driving
slowly to be irritating. So it made me think: if every time I was
stuck behind someone of latter years driving slowly it was because
they were in pain, then what an impatient, unfeeling git I was to
get irritated. And what if it wasn't a physical pain - what if
they'd just lost a job, a home, a reputation, a partner? Compassion,
I thought - I must develop more compassion.

Now I'm not suggesting we all go around with bleeding hearts - no,
the show must go on and we all have our parts to play without having
to worry about others - but how fine it could be for the show in
general if we all developed a bit more tolerance and understanding -
or even just if I did, for that matter.

It also reminded me (and this was something I learnt as a healer)
that most of the time most of us are in pain - physical, mental or
emotional - to varying degrees.

We tend not to show it, perhaps as a reflex from the days our
ancestors lived in caves: if you showed weakness you got left behind.

And what do you do if, in the throes of such extreme pain, you feel
immobilised? The first thing is to resist the urge to panic. Stop
thinking too far ahead - take it one small step at a time, paying
attention to every micro-movement of your body. To help you in this,
also pay attention to your breath.

I know I've said it countless times, but it's crucial to ongoing
existence. When you slow your breathing down, your mind slows down,
enabling it to direct the body's actions in the most effective way
under the circumstances. As you slow your breathing down, also pay
attention to relaxing your entire body as much as is humanly
possible. Tensing the body, though the normal reaction to severe
pain, restricts blood and energy flow. Relaxing it encourages the
flow of pain-relieving healing energy, which can be augmented by
pressing a point directly below the small round bone that juts out
at the very outermost edge of your knee joints into the muscle that
runs down the outside of your shin, until you feel an ache radiating
towards the ankle for about 15 seconds on each leg.

While this will not act as a painkiller, it will alter your
relationship with the pain enough to stop you freaking out about it -
and surely that's the main thing in this crazy old world, whether
in pain or not: to be able to avoid freaking out. I wish you a cool,
clear head, a strong, warm heart and a body, mind and soul free of
pain.