Big: Sometimes it’s Worth the Effort

The following describes an example of how meditation sometimes helps me to deal with the pain of fibromyalgia and the distress that goes with it.


After I established my attention on my breathing, the first thing I noticed was pain. But then I also noticed intense cravings for pleasure, bliss, and comfort, accompanied by salivation, a mental impression of tongues of bright yellow light straining to reach out for these, and an image of a sunny day with a cloudless sky.

Soon that was replaced by intense feelings of hurting (experienced as a kind of dull soreness in the chest—not the same as the physical pain itself, which was and usually is more like a burning fire). Waves of grief, loss, and sorrow followed, along with despair about my situation, not knowing what to do about it, and hopelessness about it.

Then, this all faded away and as soon as I noticed it I went back to the breath, and for a time there was just the breath. My attention got pulled into the physical pain, perhaps because I did not see anything else happening, but then I returned to the breath and tried to stay alert.

After a while, some small amount of peace and ease arose, along with a visual impression of an all encompassing soft, yellow light, accompanied by a loosening of muscle tension, and then my timer bell rang, ending this 20 minute meditation.


The key thing here is not to get pulled into or get involved with anything that is happening, but only to note what is happening or label it. In this technique awareness of the breathing is used as a kind of anchor from which to look out upon what else is happening.