What Do You Want to Tell Me?

Our physical bodies are but one aspect of our human existence, and yet they scream and demand our attention from time to time, shouting “I’m in pain. Do something!” So we do something. Sometimes we feel the need to see our physician. We take various medications for the physical, the mental and, often for the emotional, hoping that will take care of it. Sometimes we go to bed and pull the covers over our head hoping the pain will just go away by itself. And, sometimes those tactics work well.

Sometimes they don’t.

The pain continues to tap us on the shoulder. I’m here, it seems to say. I’m still here.

So now what do we do?

Ah… now is when the real work begins. Now is when we take a few deep breaths and begin to listen to what the pain is saying. We remind ourselves that pain is a brilliant messenger, here to remind us that something within our physical bodies needs our attention, not out of punishment, not out of a badness within ourselves, but just as a th-thumping noise under your car alerts you to a problem with your tire, you know it is a good idea to stop the car and attend to the flat.

The next time you experience a pain, whether physiological, psychological or spiritual, take a moment to get quiet within your mind… and ask the pain: What do you want to tell me? And, then listen intently to the answer. It will be there the moment you ask the question if you are willing to hear it.

You have nothing to lose.