Cooperating With Life, Pain, and What Shows Up Today

It seems to me in our journey living with pain, that one of the
central ingredients that is really useful is to cooperate with pain.
To allow what is showing up here and now today in my life the space to
be here. Just this attitude has a transformative effect and impact.
When we agree with what life has brought this very day, this very
moment, our relationship to it changes, transforms. It sounds basic,
to allow things to be as they are, to go with the flow.Many people use
this "go with the flow" in a cliched way. For most people who live
with chronic pain telling them to go with the flow will often illicit
a response like, well, to put it mildly, f *(*&*&()) off, you have no
idea what the f $#%#%%....its like living with this pain. If you were
in my shoes I don't think you would be "advising" me to go with the
flow!Those of you who live with serious chronic pain will know exactly
what I mean....when other well meaning people advise about how to deal
with pain, yet obviously have ZERO personal experience of it, it just
doesn't work. They just actually don't understand what it's like. For
some time now I've just learned and accepted that their well
intentioned advice is just that. Well intentioned advice.Yet the fact
remains there is a way to go with the flow of pain. To allow what
shows up today to be here, to have the space in my life, to have a
place in my life. When pain shows up, life has brought this, life is
showing up as pain. It seems pretty obvious that pain often shows up
as a warning that something is wrong and that something needs to be
attended to and fixed, nobody likes being in physical pain, and
everyone has the right to live a pain free life. Yet what happens to
those of us who cannot be fixed, that no matter what medicine,
alternative therapies, or whatever healing modalities we try just
don't work?What then?In my experience this is where we need to turn to
to a dimension of life beyond our normal day to day experience. This
dimension is often accessed by prayer, meditation, surrender, and just
simply giving up and giving over to a presence, energy, God, Being,
Christ, Tao, Allah, whatever name you put to it, that is deeper,
vaster, stronger, more intelligent, and loving, than the very pain
that I experience now in my body.Turning towards the pain, accepting
it, allowing it, even welcoming it, WITH an orientation of surrender
to this deeper dimension of ourselves, of God, of Being is the only
way that consistently works, that I have discovered to live in freedom
WITH pain. Its like some sort of miracle happens. The presence meets
the pain and transforms it. NOT taking it away, but giving me the
strength and love to bear it. This is a fact of my experience
repetitively, not just with mild pain, but with the most severe levels
of pain that I have ever experienced.Time and time again, Grace came
and showed me this way, that through acceptance, surrender and
allowing severe physical pain to simply be here, something more comes,
that something more is a mystery, a vast and great presence that can
and does hold the pain. It holds it with care, with love, and with
complete and utter compassion. That is the balm we need to live well
with pain.We need to do our part though, our part in living well with
pain is to practice cooperating with the pain as life brings it. We do
all we can to alleviate it, we take our medications, we follow our
programme of things that we know helps ourselves, but the most
important thing we can do, when we can do no more, is surrender, to
allow and cooperate with life, showing up as pain.