Shifting Suffering

1. Acknowledge your discomfort (emotional or physical)

Acknowledging or ‘embracing’ your discomfort does not mean pretending that you actually feel great when you don’t. It means pausing for a moment to actually feel what is going on in your body. We often spend our days running from or avoiding discomfort at all cost. Dare to feel it. This is extremely important before we move forward.

2. Acknowledge what has and has not helped shift your suffering in the past:

Has avoidance techniques, anger or resistance helped? Catching ourselves when we fall back into these patterns of resistance, helps us develop new, more helpful pathways in the brain that can actually facilitate a shift in suffering.

3. Check in with how you are Responding to the discomfort

On a scale of 0-10, how are you reacting to the issue? Are you upset and tense, or are you doing your best to find a place of “calm, non-resistance”, even though the situation is very unpleasant?
Doing your best to stay in an open and neutral state facilitates endless avenues for healing. It is often far more powerful and far more productive than what opposition offers.

4. Strengthen the Heart not the Head

The heart (our feeling center) is far more accurate and far more wise than the mind. Ask yourself: “Is there any place deep within that can attempt to give space to allow this turmoil?”…. The mind cannot do this, but the heart can.
This may sound absurd when faced with enormous pain, but I want you to experiment and do it anyway. This is rarely, if ever, done easily! Practicing this alone, regardless of the outcome, is an enormous success and sets the stage for more effective outcomes.

5. Nurture Your Nervous System

Breath and keep working at relaxing and “allowing” yourself to experience all there is to experience. Let the good, the bad and the painful feelings move through you. The more you do this, the more you move your body into a healing state even when in a very stressful situation. We can practice this in the visit.