Animals are amazing teachers. I'm a 'critter lover' to the core, and always have been. So it's not surprising that I've had lots of them in my life. It's also not surprising that I've had my share of injuries, ailments, and accidents to deal with. The most recent was about a year ago, when I rescued a dog that was nearly dead. He had the most horrible infection in his paw, that had traveled up his leg and was spreading through his body. He was in terrible shape, so much that the Doc wasn't really sure if we were going to be able to 'fix' it. So, we went through the usual course of tests, etc., and he fixed us up with meds to help eradicate the infection. My job was to soak, clean and dress the wound on his paw, and administer the meds twice daily.
The dog, whose name is Buddy, was the most patient, trusting soul I'd ever had to doctor. Every day, for more than 2 months, I'd unwrap the paw, soak it in a tub of warm water and salts, then dry it off, put some goop on it and rewrap. Buddy never moved an inch. He'd lie there, so patiently, and let me do what I had to do. My cat would always sit right beside him, leaning up against some part of his body, while I talked to him and did my 'job'.
The thing I noticed throughout was that he never showed any signs of mental distress. He didn't whine or cringe or shy away from me. And he most certainly didn't try to avoid the task. To me, it felt as if he knew that I was trying to help him heal and he was grateful for it. No agonizing over the process. No stressing out. Just plain old trust and patience.
By the time he'd healed, I had come to understand that the difference between him and me was that the mental part of the pain was absent. He didn't increase his pain by thinking about his ailments. He didn't do things that would aggravate the situation. He simply allowed me to attend to him and rested a lot. He slept, and ate, and eventually began playing with all the toys I had for him. Pretty soon, he was good as new. What could have been a life-ending infection turned out to be completely eliminated with love and attention.
Humans? Well, we don't do it that way. We may have pain or illness or dis-ease, and we focus on it so much, we ultimately increase the discomfort for all the thinking about it. We aren't moving toward wellness at all. We're increasing and prolonging the process because of our psychological focus on the malady. In other words, we think ourselves into the pain, and stay there. How dumb is that?
If there's anything I've learned from all this, it is that the only way to move past pain and into wellness is to release the psychological focus and turn that focus toward the vision of wellness. As simple as this sounds, it's not as easy to do (for some). We must learn to let go of the mental aspects of our maladies and settle into the peaceful place of wellness. We must take time, every single day, to lie still and quiet the mind. We must 'see' ourselves well in order to BE well. Staying fixated on the 'issue' is like ripping the stitches out of a gash every time you look at it. Is it going to heal? Not likely. But, using that same analogy, consider how magnificent the body really is. You cut yourself or break a bone or bump your head really hard. All you have to do is clean out the cut, or set the bone, or ice the bump and then....let the body do it's job. Presto. All better. Yes?
And so it is with pain. Rather than reaching for the bottle of pain killers, we could lie still, breathe deeply and relax into it. It doesn't take long at all for the pain to diminish (and even disappear). In fact, it takes less time to diminish pain with meditation than it does with any pill. I know. I've been there. Unless you've got liquid Demerol and a needle to inject it into your bloodstream, it's going to take a while for the meds to take affect. Doesn't it make sense to use your own 'meds'?
Let go of the psychological aspects of your malady. Let go of the fear and the doubt and the worry. Just relax and breathe. Relax and breathe. Your body has trillions of cells with their own individual consciousness. Those cells know what to do. All YOU have to do is LET THEM do their job. Relax. Breathe. Let go.
http://www.holistichealtharticles.com/Artz/1202/359/Pain-Management-How-Our-Mind-Affects-Our-Experience.html
The dog, whose name is Buddy, was the most patient, trusting soul I'd ever had to doctor. Every day, for more than 2 months, I'd unwrap the paw, soak it in a tub of warm water and salts, then dry it off, put some goop on it and rewrap. Buddy never moved an inch. He'd lie there, so patiently, and let me do what I had to do. My cat would always sit right beside him, leaning up against some part of his body, while I talked to him and did my 'job'.
The thing I noticed throughout was that he never showed any signs of mental distress. He didn't whine or cringe or shy away from me. And he most certainly didn't try to avoid the task. To me, it felt as if he knew that I was trying to help him heal and he was grateful for it. No agonizing over the process. No stressing out. Just plain old trust and patience.
By the time he'd healed, I had come to understand that the difference between him and me was that the mental part of the pain was absent. He didn't increase his pain by thinking about his ailments. He didn't do things that would aggravate the situation. He simply allowed me to attend to him and rested a lot. He slept, and ate, and eventually began playing with all the toys I had for him. Pretty soon, he was good as new. What could have been a life-ending infection turned out to be completely eliminated with love and attention.
Humans? Well, we don't do it that way. We may have pain or illness or dis-ease, and we focus on it so much, we ultimately increase the discomfort for all the thinking about it. We aren't moving toward wellness at all. We're increasing and prolonging the process because of our psychological focus on the malady. In other words, we think ourselves into the pain, and stay there. How dumb is that?
If there's anything I've learned from all this, it is that the only way to move past pain and into wellness is to release the psychological focus and turn that focus toward the vision of wellness. As simple as this sounds, it's not as easy to do (for some). We must learn to let go of the mental aspects of our maladies and settle into the peaceful place of wellness. We must take time, every single day, to lie still and quiet the mind. We must 'see' ourselves well in order to BE well. Staying fixated on the 'issue' is like ripping the stitches out of a gash every time you look at it. Is it going to heal? Not likely. But, using that same analogy, consider how magnificent the body really is. You cut yourself or break a bone or bump your head really hard. All you have to do is clean out the cut, or set the bone, or ice the bump and then....let the body do it's job. Presto. All better. Yes?
And so it is with pain. Rather than reaching for the bottle of pain killers, we could lie still, breathe deeply and relax into it. It doesn't take long at all for the pain to diminish (and even disappear). In fact, it takes less time to diminish pain with meditation than it does with any pill. I know. I've been there. Unless you've got liquid Demerol and a needle to inject it into your bloodstream, it's going to take a while for the meds to take affect. Doesn't it make sense to use your own 'meds'?
Let go of the psychological aspects of your malady. Let go of the fear and the doubt and the worry. Just relax and breathe. Relax and breathe. Your body has trillions of cells with their own individual consciousness. Those cells know what to do. All YOU have to do is LET THEM do their job. Relax. Breathe. Let go.
http://www.holistichealtharticles.com/Artz/1202/359/Pain-Management-How-Our-Mind-Affects-Our-Experience.html
