Working with Pain – Mindfulness Strategies
At one time or another, we will all want to learn how to use our meditation practice to work with pain. There is no literal, paint-by-numbers prescription for relating to pain; however, there are several important teachings and skillful awareness practices to consider when working with pain and unpleasant sensations. (read more)
Below are some resources that you might find helpful:
Talks on Working with Pain
Awakening Our Body’s Awareness – Part 2 – (Working with Pain)
Mindful awareness of our bodies is a portal to full aliveness, wisdom and love. These two classes will explore the trance that takes us away from our body, the pathways home,...
Heart to Heart: A Conversation Between Dan Gottlieb and Tara Brach
Heart-to-Heart A Conversation between Dan Gottlieb and Tara Brach: Pain, Loneliness, Gratitude & Whatever Else Comes Up – Including Love This very real and human...
Embodied Presence (Part 2) – Planting Our Roots in the Universe – Working with Pain
In describing our human predicament and dis-ease, D.H. Lawrence says we are like a great tree with our roots in the air. We need to replant ourselves—in our bodies, hearts and...
Embodied Presence: Portal to the Sacred – Part 2
This two part series explores how we regularly leave our body and skim life’s surface in a mental trance, and the ways we can train our attention to come home again. We look at...
Awakening Our Body’s Awareness – Part 2 – (Working with Pain)
Mindful awareness of our bodies is a portal to full aliveness, wisdom and love. These two classes will explore the trance that takes us away from our body, the pathways home,...
Awakening Our Body’s Awareness – Part 1
CC ~ Mindful awareness of our bodies is a portal to full aliveness, wisdom and love. These two classes will explore the trance that takes us away from our body, the pathways...
Embodied Awareness – Pain and Living Fully – Part 3
The experiences we most value - feeling creative, loving, vital - require being awake in our bodies. Yet when faced with physical pain, our conditioning is to pull away from our...
Awakening from Trance – Embracing Unlived Life
When physical or emotional pain is too much, our conditioning is to pull away and avoid direct contact with raw feelings. The result is a trance - we are split off from the...
The Dance with Pain
“Pain is inevitable and suffering is optional.” In this talk Tara explores the difference between pain and suffering and examines the most common, yet often unconscious, ways we...
Meditations on Working with Pain
Meditation – Opening to Full Aliveness (18:32 min.)
Our tension is a way of defending against the aliveness that is here and now. This meditation guides us in relaxing tension, awakening our senses and discovering the vitality and...
Tara Talks: Guided Reflection on Inhabiting This Body (12:50 min)
When we are not inhabiting our bodies, we are not experiencing our full aliveness. When pain arises, how much can you open to it and let it be as it is? Just like waves in the...
Tara Talks – Guided Practice: When the Pain is Too Strong (5:47 min.)
When pain is intense, it is not always wise or compassionate to open to it directly. In this short video, Tara explores ways to work with pain when it feels like too much to...
Meditation: Radical Acceptance of Pain (11:51 min)
As we learn to relax our resistance to unpleasant sensations, we discover an open and tender space of awareness that has room for living and dying. - from the CD set: Radical...
Other Resources on Working with Pain
Blog: Working with Pain – Summary of Mindfulness Strategies
See also: Resources for Working with Pain Working with Pain – Summary of Mindfulness Strategies At one time or another, we will all want to learn how to use our meditation...
Blog: Meeting Our Edge and Softening
It’s another morning, another day of having to live inside a hurting body inherited from a little known, rare genetic condition. I try not to think of how it used to be. I can...
Blog: Pain Is Not Wrong
Many years ago when I was pregnant with my son, I decided to have a home birth without drugs, assisted by a midwife. My hope was to be as wakeful and present as possible during...
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