The Pain Companion

A uniquely practical, gentle, and empathic approach to pain management and reduction from a fellow sufferer

A Practical, Gentle, and Empathetic Approach to Pain

Where do you turn when medication and medical treatments do not relieve persistent, debilitating pain? What can you do when pain interferes with work, family, and social life and you no longer feel like the person you used to be? Relying on firsthand experience with severe nerve pain, author Sarah Anne Shockley accompanies you on your journey through pain and offers compassionate, practical advice to ease difficult emotions and address lifestyle challenges. Her approach helps reduce the toll that living in pain takes on relationships, self-image, and well-being while cultivating greater ease and resilience on a daily basis. Dozens of accessible, uplifting practices guide you every step of the way from a life overcome by pain to a life of greater comfort and peace.The Pain Companion also offers profound insights for medical practitioners and invaluable guidance for anyone who loves or cares for others in pain.

Introduction

PART 1: PAIN MOVES IN
Chapter 1 Life Taken Over by Pain
Chapter 2 The Submersion of the Self
Chapter 3 When Pain Won’t Leave
Chapter 4 Feeling Bad About Feeling Bad

PART 2: THE EMOTIONAL LIFE OF CHRONIC PAIN
Chapter 5 Pain’s Emotional Traps
Chapter 6 Guilt and Shame
Chapter 7 Anger and Blame
Chapter 8 Victimization and Powerlessness
Chapter 9 Fear, Anxiety, and Stress
Chapter 10 Isolation and Loneliness
Chapter 11 Invisibility and Silence
Chapter 12 Physical and Emotional Exhaustion
Chapter 13 Sadness and Loss

PART 3: MEDITATIVE APPROACHES TO PHYSICAL PAIN
Chapter 14 Discovering Pain’s Purpose
Chapter 15 The Body Made Wrong
Chapter 16 Finding a New Approach
Chapter 17 Communicating with Pain
Chapter 18 Soothing the Wild Animal
Chapter 19 Introduction to Meditative Exercises
Chapter 20 Releasing Breath
Chapter 21 Unlocking Contraction
Chapter 22 Paying Attention to Pain
Chapter 23 Shifting Your Relationship to Pain
Chapter 24 Loving the Places that Hurt
Chapter 25 Imaging Pain’s Form
Chapter 26 Giving Pain What It Wants
Chapter 27 Writing Pain a Letter of Complaint
Chapter 28 Pain As Messenger
Chapter 29 Telling Pain Your Story
Chapter 30 Listening to Pain

PART 4: WHEN PAIN IS THE TEACHER
Chapter 31 Resistance Is Futile
Chapter 32 Having Compassion for Yourself
Chapter 33 What I Learned From Pain
Chapter 34 The Nature of True Healing
Chapter 35 Enlisting Pain as an Ally
Chapter 36 You Are Not Your Pain
Chapter 37 Some Concluding Thoughts