Pain Meditations
A basic algorithm for processing pain
There are dozens of practices for working with pain. If you’re in pain, here are a couple that can help right now.
Before starting, a heuristic that is useful for any type of challenging sensation1:
Aware → Accept → Transform
You can’t let your arm relax if you don’t realize that your fist is clenched. Similarly, you can’t move to accept or transform a sensation if you don’t have basic awareness of its dimensions (e.g. shape, location).
Once you’re aware of the pain, acceptance becomes easier. Acceptance means allowing enough internal relaxation for the sensation to move through you. After it has largely moved through, you can examine and transform the underlying patterns generating the pain.
If pain >8/10:
(e.g. it is difficult to talk)
It’s likely too intense to even maintain awareness of the sensation.
Basic box breathing (2m) can be helpful.
Mantra or prayer can still work at this stage.
Skilfully dissociation (distraction, painkillers) may be appropriate
In the moment, you might invite someone to help you find ways to take the pain down just 1 level. Afterwards, brainstorm some options for the future.
Aware (pain <8/10):
(uncomfortably distracting, but you can still mostly function):
Accept (pain <6/10):
Shinzen Young’s guided pain meditation.
Transform (pain <3/10):
Gendlin-style Focusing in dialogue pain. [pure audio]
Note: Many people struggle to fully benefit from accept- or transform-type practices on their own. This often reflects current limits in emotional/attentional capacity — don’t take it as a personal failure. If you’re feeling frustrated, try involving another person (peer, coach, therapist) to expand your capacity.
It’s important to approach all of this with patience and kindness toward yourself. Even the gentlest practices can become self-punishment if done from internal criticism.
I’ve drawn inspiration from both Brian and Nicole Whetten’s Aware-Accept-Improve, as well as Gay and Katie Hendricks’ Face-Accept-Commit-Take Action.
The foundational grounding comes from Judith Blackstone’s Realization Process, and the last part comes from Somatic Tracking (of Pain Reprocessing Therapy).
Really appreciate how tihs breaks down working with pain by intensity level. The aware-accept-transform framework makes sense, but that note about not taking it as personal failure when the gentler practices dont work alone is crucial. Too many pain management approaches skip over needing support and people end up blaming themselves for not meditating hard enough.