Making Space For Pain

Take A Pause

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Making Space For Pain

Take A Pause Ep. 51: Turning Towards Discomfort, Rather Than Running Away

Erin Lee

Sep 14, 2025

Transcript

When pain shows up, our first instinct is to fight. To resist it, to push it away with all our might.

But you may already know this:

Pain x Resistance = Suffering

Pain is part of life, but resistance makes it heavier. The more we fight, the more it hurts, and the longer it stays.

Mindfulness invites us to try something different—to make space for pain.

What does that mean?

It begins with turning towards discomfort instead of running from it.

Intentionally staying present with the sensations that arise: heat, tightness, pressure, heaviness. Moment by moment, noticing how they shift and change.

Curiosity helps. We ask:

What’s happening? What’s really here?
What makes up this experience I call “pain”?

And we remind ourselves of impermanence. Nothing stays the same or lasts forever. Pain—however intense—rises, peaks, and eventually fades.

The same applies to emotional pain, which easily overwhelms the mind. Anxiety may show up as tightness in the chest. Grief as heaviness in the belly. By noticing how emotions show up in the body, we have something more tangible to work with.

We learn to observe without amplifying the pain.

We learn to breathe into the pain, softening around it. This helps us meet discomfort with gentleness and compassion.

Making space for pain doesn’t mean liking it. It’s about not adding to the discomfort. Not making the wound bigger.

Just letting pain be pain, watching it come and go.

Overtime, this simple practice builds resilience—tolerance even to the most intense of experiences, and a deeper trust in our capacity to meet life as it is.

In this Take A Pause session recorded on 1 June 2025, the TAP community practiced meeting pain without resistance. We concluded our practice by contemplating A Poem About Staying Present In Pain by Tuuli Vahtra.

Instructions on Working with Pain Begins: 11:16

Meditation Begins: 16:16

Reading Begins: 34:12

Meditation Duration: 18 minutes

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