As I'm writing this, my upper back and neck is aching from the braces that I need to wear to align and correct my body's posture.
I thought a little meditation would calm my body down and hopefully get rid of the aches from the tensed muscles adjusting to the new posture. I did and this is my experience...
Every breath I take draws me away from the pain. It's good to know that not only our breaths keep us alive, but it calms us down. For me, every breath is an awareness that this body needs to heal. The more breaths I took, the more the pain goes away. I guess it's because I calmed down.
I love it when I enter that space within that experience. Whether it's dealing with physical aches, mental dramas or emotional turmoil, I'd turn to simple breathing meditation to take a step back and know that this is all made up.
Yes, made up. Regardless of external influence or internal nonsense, it's ALL MADE UP. It takes a huge amount of awareness to be able to come to this realisation every single time. And when I'm too tired, I, too, would spiral down and play all kinds of mental crap in my head. I struggle sometimes, but during the struggle, I'd get bouts of realisation. And it's always enough to snap me back to reality.
No doubt that it's easy just sitting around and letting our 'mental projectors' run our lives. But it's really difficult to find that freaking switch and turn it off because we get so caught up in the plot. So the most effective way (which I find works for me) is to just sit down, loosen up, take a few deep breaths; all the while just focusing on every inhalation and exhalation. That will be enough to tell me, "Hey I'm in the cinema again and the title I'm watching this time is OH MY GOD, WHY ARE PEOPLE SO STUPID?"
