Pain is a Teacher

January 20, 2023 in orange desk

For the past week, I have been struggling with a pinched nerve, the pain of which is in my back and down my right arm. Until today, when the pain has lessened a little bit because of exercises in a slim volume called “Treat Your Own Neck” by Robin McKenzie, I have been struggling (and moaning, according to my family). Mostly struggling to think about anything other than how much my back and arm hurt. A constant ache like a toothache.

I have slept a lot to try and outrun the pain, or at least become unconscious of it. I have cleared my calendar of everything possible this week and just slept. Perhaps this pain is my path right now, I thought, and so I have spent a lot of time breathing deeply into the epicenter of it. I have walked on the treadmill and taken the dogs for walks and read a lot this week–all to refocus on something else besides the pain, to varying degrees of success.

My arm and back still hurt, but it is lessening, or I am becoming more adept at navigating it. Sometimes things like this happen when we need to slow down or re-center. So I am looking at this pain as my teacher. I am listening to it. Perhaps pain of all kinds is our teacher. Let us listen and learn from it. And moan whenever necessary.

That’s all I have for you this week. And now, I sleep again.

About Patti Digh

Patti Digh is an author, speaker, and educator who builds learning communities and gets to the heart of difficult topics. Her work over the last three decades has focused on diversity, inclusion, social justice, and living and working mindfully. She has developed diversity strategies and educational programming for major nonprofit and corporate organizations and has been a featured speaker at many national and international conferences.