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FEBRUARY 27

FLEXIBILITY

MENTAL BALANCE

“We challenge you to give up what is not helping you with your pain.”

A Day without Pain

When I’m in pain it’s usually a result of holding onto something long after the “expiration date.” I’m learning that being flexible enough to risk letting go—of fears, resentments, and expectations— is necessary if I’m to shift from pain to freedom.

I practice flexibility in a variety of ways, like doing something I wouldn’t normally do—maybe I drive home a different way one day, or listen to a different radio station in the car. I listen to someone like my sponsor, therapist, counselor, or others in my pain recovery program, and allow their suggestions into my life. I step gently outside my comfort zone, to the very edge of my capability (but never over it into increased pain). Flexibility is an exercise of my mind. I practice going with the flow and accepting what’s coming or going in my life, rather than holding on and trying to control things in order to get what I want. Through practicing flexibility, I’m opening up to and living in the possibility that my emotional pain does not last forever and my chronic pain does not rule my life.

I’m flexible with my plans and ideas about my life and what is good for me. When an idea’s time has passed, I’m flexible enough to let go and move on. Where I would normally say “no,” today I may practice saying “yes,” and where I may normally say “yes,” I may say “no.” I’ll do something that someone with experience in pain recovery suggests, regardless of my personal, comfort-based objections.