Finding Sanctuary: Mindbody Arts for Pain
When the black dog appears
Chronic pain can be like a familiar dog that reappears in your life from time to time. Photo of a black dog appearing to look you in the eye by Gina Santangelo at Unsplash.
I am getting my bearings this first whole week of January, as I imagine you are, too. A few days ago, I started a few email messages with the words, “hitting the ground running” to start the new year. Truth be told, however, the start of 2025 has been rough. There has, in fact, been no running for me at all in 2025 so far. Ha ha. Just a few days into January, my body gave me sharp back pain, and the pain felt like a spanner in the works that could ruin everything or grind things to a halt. What? Pain?? Me? No! Not now! But it was undeniable. All the signs were there of my body begging for mercy to do something different. It hurt to turn my body in bed, and it hurt to walk that morning. At times as I walked that day, little lightning bolts shot through my body and brain, and I felt myself gasp and utter a primal “arghhh!” that turned heads and got looks of concern from passersby. High drama aside, I knew what I had to do with all this pain: I had to change expectations and activities and find sanctuary in Mind and Spirit.
Mindbody Arts and Chronic Pain
Some of you longtime readers of these messages know that I teach mindbody practice (Tai Chi, Qigong, Yoga, Mindfulness, and Sound Healing) for people in chronic pain situations. In fact, I am leading an Empowered Relief class in a couple of weeks that outlines the three basic shortcuts to managing pain and why they work. If you find this blog entry interesting, you may want to join me for this class.
The Truth About Pain
Anyone can have pain. It is an illusion to think that there are some people who don’t ever deal with pain of some kind throughout their lives. That said, there is a rare condition where people have a genetic insensitivity to pain. People with this condition do not live very long lives, because sometimes their fatal injuries can go undetected. But the thing is, when it is your turn to feel pain, it is your turn, and pain is that signal in your body-mind system to do things differently or to do new things that are somehow better for you. In a basic sense: pain’s message is to get to safety right away! But what you find threatening is very personal and can be a combination of physical and psychological factors. For me personally, all those end-of-the-year holiday celebrations with my family amounted to late nights and early mornings. It was so joyful! Since I was still doing what I thought was a light teaching schedule, maybe it was too much joy. So, in a sense I was “holding back” from more joy? Either way, it wore me out. My back was talking to me all right, and sometimes the body uses whatever it must to talk to you and get your attention. This pain I experienced in my low back is actually familiar pain that I have dealt with many times before in my life when my “capacity optimism” has made me take on too much and I have “burnt the candle at both ends.”
This brings me to an important caveat.
Important caveat: I offer the following information about my personal chronic pain experience as an educational story. If you are experiencing pain that is sudden, new, or surprising to you, I encourage you to get it checked out and pursue the needed special medical attention. Thanks!
Otherwise, if you have a bugbear pain that returns like a “black dog” every now and then and that you deal with regularly, read on for what worked for me and to learn what I teach to others who deal with chronic pain situations while also needing to work at a job and have a regular life. Winston Churchill, who suffered from regular and debilitating episodes of depression, referred to his depression as a black dog that would show up now and again. I have come to think of my pain episodes that way, too.
So, yes, the black dog showed up, and I accepted the challenge.
What did I do when the black dog showed up?
I put the concepts I normally teach at the pain centers to work to manage myself and my aching back . There are five basic concepts noted below that are useful if your body can’t be a sanctuary for you because it hurts. When your body feels like an unsafe place, that is when it is time to take refuge in your mind, and even in your Spirit. We don’t usually talk about such things with one another except maybe in church or spiritual settings like meditation retreats. But some of these concepts point to “finding refuge and sanctuary in your mind and spirit,” and they can really help you get through painful episodes when you apply them even just a little bit. The key is to apply them, which means taking action. A summary of the concepts is shown at the end, if you want to skip ahead.
Here’s what I did when the black dog showed up.
1. Concept 1: Gather useful thoughts into consciousness. Pain can bring on unhelpful thoughts about ruin and failure and helplessness. I gathered helpful phrases and good ideas. This is getting your mind involved when you make decisions. Some useful ideas give you a way to think about what is happening. They organize energy. These thoughts helped me:
a. What if I bail/change plans/reschedule what I can today?
b. No blame.
c. “The unknown is where all outcomes are possible; enter it with grace.” [from my Yogi Tea bag]
d. I accept as a gift the reality that things work out the way they do.
Ahhhh. Helpful thoughts can help you organize your experience so that it is more manageable and so you open up to possibilities such as rescheduling what you can. Some of these phrases reflect a philosophical concept of amor fati or “loving things as they are.” Practicing no blame may help you maintain a sense of innocence, objectivity, and power. You are doing your best, and your pain is not a punishment. Having pain can feel like you are entering unknown and tricky territory. Of course, it can scare you! Pay attention to people and things that are supportive and make you feel safe. Be humble and be brave when you take action and accept help and support.
2. I walked a half mile. Concept 2: “Motion is lotion” is a concept that says that it is okay to move your body while it is in pain. Pain will make you go motionless, because it is trying to protect you. It is natural to think you need rest when you are in pain. Avoiding certain movements is smart. But that familiar pain may also try to overprotect you, which leads to more pain, stiffness and fear. Pain researchers have found that movement is safe for people in pain and it helps a lot in managing chronic pain situations where pain by definition lasts six months or more. Click here for a helpful overview of the guidelines and research on safety and effectiveness of alternative treatments for pain that include mindbody movement arts (Yoga, Tai Chi, Qigong, etc). I think of doing physical activity while you are in pain as moving through pain as if pain were a physical substance that you will pass through, and not stay in. You want to re-educate your body to actually move while you are in pain with respect and kindness. Doing a little movement is enough, and be sure to allow for recovery. During my slow walk, there were little moments of peace when I was almost pain free as I walked. Certain body positions and exertions were fine. Other movements I made: Yowza! I felt pain in my very soul. Moving your body will tell you what you are dealing with and what the pain is doing. It is helpful to look upon the pain in an impersonal way (yes, this is Concept 1 again). It is not “your” pain, but recognize that pain is happening in the moment, in the now. Such a thought can help you get distance from the pain experience and give you objectivity. Be sure to rest after you move your body and balance rest periods with movement.
3. I applied heat when I got back home. Concept 3: Do things you find soothing. Applying ice or heat will stimulate circulation to the area and feel like relief. Moments of peace, relief, and relaxation train your body and brain to steer away from pain.
4. Deciding I would be okay, I applied Concept 2 again, because the body and mind learn through repetition. I did an hour of spirited yoga (squats/chair pose, Warrior 1, upward dog [which was most painful], downward dog, cat/cow, bird/dog balance, star balance pose, cow-face pose, extended child, child, happy baby, butterfly pose, dancer twist, traditional twist, bridge pose, fish pose, half boat, corpse). I teach yoga at one of the pain centers, and there is a lot of scholarly research that shows yoga, like Qigong and Tai Chi, helps people in pain. Click here for helpful reviews for yoga for health and pain management.
5. I did breath practice. Deep breathing alone can shift your body into deeper states of relaxation. Another important concept I teach is Concept 4: Relaxation is the opposite of pain! Any amount of time you spend in deep relaxation adds up. The seconds and minutes of relaxation count. If there is one out of the five concepts to use, it is this one.
6. I rescheduled as many things and activities as I could to minimize driving and running around. Concept 5: Pacing activities into manageable periods or chunks helps you conserve your energy. Everything does not have to come to a halt when you are in pain. It takes a kind of brilliance to keep moving forward in any way possible. What I teach is that direction is more important than speed. So what if you are slow or need to reschedule? I routinely ask myself: “How little can I do right now and still move things forward?” The amazing thing here is that such an attitude makes me think in terms of priorities and essentials. The practice has made me a good project manager and encouraged using time and energy well. It can be an art form.
7. I had hot tea and changed into fresh socks in the middle of the day and looked out the window just to sigh. Yes, this is Concept 3 again (the body and mind learn through repetition!): Do soothing activities often. As the poet Mary Oliver says, “Let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.” Your favorite music or movies or talking to friends can be a healing balm. Just be alert to indulging. A pain patient I had in Tai Chi class used food to soothe himself routinely, which created other problems. Aim for small soothing comforts that don’t cost anything but make you feel seen and cared for.
The following days after that pain episode began, I was able to actually teach while in pain at one of the pain centers where I work, and I shared the fact that I was in pain with the students. It is amazing that sometimes when you are in pain, no one knows you are in pain. Pain can be lonely, but it can be a radical and liberating thing to share with people that you are in pain and will be adjusting your behavior or gestures and needing more time. That requires confidence and social skills and communication skills to advocate for yourself and maybe even say “no” to things. It may be hard or awkward and maybe never quite feel easy to do, but the reward is worth it. Today I walked five or so miles, did some Zoom classes and worked at the computer. I used a strong-smelling pain ointment for my back when I was done with the obligations and social interactions. A little more heat, a little more tea, and a little quiet told my body and mind it was time to rest.
Seeing pain as changeable and even temporary is really powerful. Pain is not who you are, but more like weather passing through your life. All these things I did while in pain worked to keep me going and even reduced the pain! A few days after the whole pain onset, there were some twinges, but the pain was changing and fading into the distance. The black dog was leaving at last. The lesson: Trust your discomfort, and act with grace and humility to address it. The only sanctuary you find may be in your Mind or your Spirit. But sanctuary it is!
Five Useful Concepts for Managing a Pain Episode
Here is the summary of useful concepts for managing a painful episode.
Concept 1: Gather useful thoughts into consciousness to get the mind involved. Notice what is unhelpful and exchange it for something useful.
Concept 2: Motion is lotion concept. Re-educate your body to move through pain.
Concept 3: Do things you find soothing.
Concept 4: Relaxation is the opposite of pain! Do what you can to relax regularly every day even for just a few seconds or minutes. It adds up.
Concept 5: Pace activities into manageable periods or chunks to conserve energy.