Pain

Early this morning I woke up with a cramp in my left calf.

This happens from time to time.

I've heard that it helps to take a daily calcium supplement, which I do.  I think the frequency of my leg cramps has declined since I've been taking the calcium supplements.  But, so far, the leg cramps have not been eliminated altogether.

My usual strategy when I feel a muscle cramp is to rub my leg vigorously.  After a few minutes the cramp subsides. 

But, as long as the cramp has lasted, it has felt painful and very uncomfortable.  At least that was the judgement that I used to place on it and the language that I previously employed to describe it.  

This morning, having recently read about pain in "The Ease of Being," I took a new approach.

Jean Klein says that you cannot simultaneously experience a sensation and have a thought about that sensation.  The sensation itself and the thought about it are two separate things.

They happen in very quick succession, so we typically think of them as one, but actually they're different.

So first there is the sensation, and then split seconds later there are the thoughts about the sensation.  

There are the naming of the sensation (pain), a judgement of the sensation (it's bad), and a desire for the sensation to go away.

This time I had the presence of mind to listen to the sensation.  I tried not to label it, judge it, or control it.  I managed to maintain an attitude of open curiosity towards it.

To my surprise, the sensation subsided and disappeared very quickly -- much more quickly than has been the case when I've rubbed my calf.

 

Acceptance = Listening

I have found it challenging to accept everything in my life, as Eckhart Tolle recommends in "The Power of Now."

Sometimes the best I can do is grit my teeth and grudgingly endure a situation.

In Jean Klein's writing I came across a concept that felt more supportive to me.  Klein says that accepting a situation means listening to it.

Klein goes on to say that listening, in this sense, is not something that you do with just your ears.  Rather, you listen with your whole being.

You patiently listen, without an agenda or a deadline, and the situation gradually reveals itself to you.

Perhaps the situation simply evaporates.

Or, if it continues, you slowly come to see it in a larger context. 

Whatever happens, there is likely to be some sort of movement.  You probably won't feel as stuck as you previously did. 

Listening feels to me like an easier recommendation to follow than accepting.