Living with Constant Pain

Making Peace with Pain.

I have lived with chronic pain since a horse riding accident injured my spine when I was 13 years old.  During some periods of my life I have been bed bound, unable to wiggle my big toe without screaming as a tidal wave of pain shot through my whole body.  I am grateful that this has not happened to me since bringing Reiki and meditation into my life.  Learning how to cope with the stresses of life most definitely has a remarkable affect on physical pain.  Having said this there are times when the pain has really worn me out and even simple tasks seem challenging.

Last November I experienced a profound healing experience and literally overnight my pain levels reduced by 75%.  What joy! Over the following months I began to take this reduced pain for granted and I started to become careless with my diet and actions.  Guess what…. I am here typing this quite exhausted and having had a tough week on the pain front!

I have taken much time to think about why I was relieved of this pain during a healing at a Spiritual workshop and why I have been given it back and here is what I have concluded:  I was relieved of it to help me move forward with my spiritual path, I was relieved of it to strengthen my faith, I was relieved of it to give me the energy to make some lifestyle choices that would be beneficial to my overall health.  It has come back because I have become lazy in those lifestyle choices, I had stopped giving myself Reiki on a daily basis, I had forgotten what it feels like to be in constant pain; if I forget how can I truly empathise with those who are experiencing this?  In short I needed to be reminded that I am spirit having a HUMAN experience!

As a Reiki Masters many people think that we should not experience physical ailments, but these are part of life’s learning journey.  Yes Reiki can most definitely help with the physical pain, particularly when it is born out of stuck, locked in emotions causing ‘dis-ease’, but most of all it can help with mentally and emotionally coping with ‘our lot’.

Pain is part of life, but what we do with it is the important thing.  We can allow it to consume us or we can recognise that this is part of our journey, it lets us know that we are alive and we are human, but it does not need to define us.  I can use my own experience of crumbling bones to illustrate this, but a truly remarkable example is that of Professor Stephen Hawking – what a man!  He is a person who has refused, against all the odds, to allow his pain and disability to shape his life.

I have now learned not to take my health for granted, it is something that must be worked at in order to live life the way I would like to.  I have been reminded that healing is a divine gift that needs treating with the respect that it deserves.  I have also been reminded that our lives are a series of choices, sometimes we take a good path, sometimes we take a wrong turn, but we can always find another pathway or make a U turn!

So I have turned onto the road I have travelled before that served me very well. I will eat better, I will be totally disciplined in my meditation and self Reiki treatment routine, I will drink more water than I do tea!  In a nutshell I will care very deeply for my mind, body and soul because if I don’t I don’t function as well as I should.

“To truly laugh, you must be able to take your pain, and play with it!”  Charlie Chaplin