Welcome 2009!
December 31, 2008 by Bonnie Boots
Filed under General News
Welcome to the new blog for Pain Health News. Although I still have a lot of work to do setting it up, I'm rushing ahead to kick it off this last day of 2008 so that you and I can welcome in the New Year, 2009, together.
It's lovely to think that we have a brand new year in front of us, like a glistening field of fresh snow just waiting for us to wade in and make our mark. But like so many lovely thoughts, this one is a fantasy.
The reality is that 2009 comes to us trailing the debris of 2008, a year filled with fears and frustrations, a year that sent the entire world into a tailspin. It will take more than the blowing of horns and the popping of firecrackers to chase away the troubles of the year now passing.
We will not wake up on New Years Day to a completely new world, nor a completely new life. Each of us will find pretty much the same struggles and challenges waiting on our doorstep as we step out into our new year. And yet, there is cause for celebration, and for joy, because at the very heart of our New Year a celebration is the most profound and powerful of all human emotions.
There is hope.
To look at the world as it is, to look at ourselves as we are, and to patiently trust and expect that things will be better is the source of true magic, for once you choose hope, anything is possible.
Hope is the source of all courage, of all creativity. Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who kept going when they had nothing left but hope. Hope is, as Emily Dickens wrote, "the thing with feathers-That perches in the soul-And sings the tune without the words-And never stops-at all."
When trust has been broken, when confidence has been wounded, when dreams have been shattered, hope is indeed the thing that sits in the soul and sings the tune without words, the tune that assures us life not only can be better but will be better.
There was a time in my life when I was in despair, when pain seemed never ending and people seemed not to care. But hope sat in my soul and the song it sang gave me the courage and the ambition to push on, to prod, to nag and demand and search.
It was hope that told me there was healing. And hope did not lie.
Tonight, after the horns stop blowing and the firecrackers stop popping, I will go out into the still night, into the quiet and listen for the bird-like voice warbling in my own soul the joyful tune. I invite you to listen to the song inside your own soul, then join me here to share your hopes for the New Year.
### Bonnie Boots publishes Pain Health News to provide information and motivation to people living with chronic pain. You can stay in touch with her by typing your email address into the subscribe box in the upper right corner of this page.
I wish you the best with this new blog. It looks promising, especially for those who have not yet lost the little bird that sings in the soul.
Pretty much how I’m feeling right now. The bird is silent.
I will keep this blog bookmarked. Thanks for all your hard work.
~cj
At another level, what you call the fantasy, Bonnie is the true reality and the rest is the illusion we call life. I see hope as the doorway to truth which invites us with feelings of upliftment. You know, the way I see it is that the whole world is like a body. If we don’t give it the right nutrition it comes up with boils and sores and aches and pains …. war, violence, disease. We just need to feed it right. So maybe pain has a positive message – the wake-up call to make choices which lead to well-being at all levels. Here’s to a year of fresh snow and bright cheery faces!
Joy
CJ, I went through a long period of thinking the bird was silent, only to discover I had merely been drowning out its song under a cacophony of negative inner talk. I was so angry at what had happened to me, so angry at how badly I was treated, and in the case of several doctors, mistreated, that I could think of nothing else. The medications I was taking only added to my feelings of being disconnected and depressed. But as Joy points out, pain can also be a wake-up call. When my pain–physical as well as mental–became totally unbearable, I was forced into action. And the minute I began to move in more positive directions, I heard that little bird sing out. My wish for you is that 2009 will be the year you hear your own song, loud and clear!
BB
Loving one’self by taking care of all personal needs accepting challenges as a chance to learn and grow to be the shining light of ones own life find the way to accept and be all each can be in brightness and love
wishing all health,wealth and happiness in 2009
Love and light
aura
finding the love inside even when things are challenging makes going through tough times easier and when you look for the bright side they are never difficult to go through and wow can you learn a lot.
I have found even taking the time to love the pain makes going through it so much easier that the joy of living is always and adventure for me.
Love and light
aura
I wouldn’t say I ever learned to love my pain, but when I reached the point of accepting pain–not giving in to it, but not shying away from it, either, just accepting it–I finally started to make progress. And I can honestly say that the challenge of dealing with chronic pain taught me more than any other experience in my life. It most especially taught me that I had capabilities and courage I had never called up when life was easy. Happy 2009 to you, aura!
Hi again!
I remember not loving pain through my own experience of chronic fatigue over 10 years ago now which went on for quite a number of years, but now I see I was in resistance (I wish this pain would GO AWAY!!). In contrast recently, thru a process of recovery before and after a recent hip replacement operation (due to end stages of osteoarthritis), I became aware of just how much ‘trauma’ (from the past) had lodged itself in that area. The pain was almost like a petulant child saying ‘I am NOT going to step forward’ (I had made a major decision to ’step forward this year of 2008).. mainly through fear and wanting to protect me from further trauma at some kinda primal level! So I learned to love my pain as you might love a child with a temper tantrum, letting it know I was listening and reassuring ‘her’ that everything is ok now, nothing to be afraid of and so on, making use of EFT and Dynamic meditation processes … And the amazing thing is that the pain went down dramatically even before the op and the whole process of recovery was easy and 99% drug free. I love my pain (when it arises)because I know it is only trying to set me free and I just need to listen to it the right way. Love and Light. Joy x
I, too, found that resiting my pain was part of my problem. As my medication would start wearing off and my pain would begin to increase, I’d begin tensing my muscles, anticipating more pain. And of course, tensing my muscles, in itself, increased my pain. At the same time, I’d say things to myself like “Oh, no, now it’s going to be really bad and I can’t take it. ” So in the manner of all self-fulfilling prophesies, my pain would get really bad and I couldn’t take it. To stop it, I’d do destructive things like doubling up my meds.
But one day I started to wonder what the limits of my pain would be. “How bad would it get,” I asked myself, “if I didn’t resist it, but just let it do whatever it’s going to do?” I was terrified to find out. I thought I might pass out or go crazy. But the first time I tried not resisting, tried to let go of my fear and just let my pain grow without any resistance from me, it started to build to a point where I felt really threatened and then….it just went away.
I tried it several times over a couple of days, and each time my pain would increase and then subside to a level I could handle with nothing more than aspirin. At first, I was SO freaked out. I wondered if this meant my doctor was right–that my pain was all in my head. (Don’t we all hear that diagnosis!)
But I kept experimenting, and as I began to see actual results from changing what I said to my body ( No more “I can’t take it,” but now “It won’ t be so bad. I can handle it.” ) I saw that although my injuries were physical and not “in my head” the thoughts and emotions I processed in my head impacted dramatically on my experience of pain. That pushed me into the study of hypnosis, EFT and other alternative therapies that lead me to actual recovery. I now process pain as a signal that there are things in BOTH my body and my mind that I need to bring into balance. What a pity it is that standard medicine (and health insurance) pushes pain patients towards meds and surgery ONLY without offering counseling or training in the mental therapies that can so easily and inexpensively produce lasting results. Perhaps in this New Year of 2009, with the health industry collapsing, things will change!
What a beautiful sharing Bonnie. It is so true, how this change from resistance to acceptance and relaxation can make all the difference. I also had the same experience of experimenting with relaxing into the pain and also found that it first crescendoed and then went down dramatically afterwards. Later on I also had to accept that ‘end stages of osteoarthritis’ was a physical problem and so there is a balance as you say, between body and mind and processing our thoughts and emotions is a very important part of the whole recovery package. I think it is fabulous that we are starting to wake up to all of this now … gives us great hope for the New year and years to follow. All the best. Joy