What did you say?

Natalie Goldberg leads workshops using writing as a Zen practice, a way to direct attention inward. She teaches to focus on first thoughts, encouraging her writing students to stay with the immediate, the authentic, the direct experience, and to avoid analysis and explanation. This principle also applies when experiencing discomfort.

By nature, we want an explanation. We worry. We often think of the most frightening possibilities. Eventually, if not immediately, we might seek out a medical diagnosis. In some ways getting a name for what ails us is reassuring. At least tests and a physician's diagnosis confirm our report that something is wrong. We aren't making this up. If it has a name, others must also have had "it." We are absolved of any self-doubt about the accuracy of our self-report.

However, as soon as we accept a diagnostic label, we draw to us a large morphic field that contains all the thoughts, beliefs, and emotions that have accrued to those diagnostic terms from the time they were first used. And many of those thoughts include such ideas as "There's nothing that can be done for it." "You'll just have to learn to live with it." "This is a chronic condition." "Eventually you will need surgery." "You should be taking such and such a medication for this." The list of fixed ideas goes on. And what do we know? They are the experts, aren't they?

It isn't that those ideas are false so much as that they aren't the only possibilities. And many of those ideas that involve invasive procedures are built on a distrust of the human body. In contrast alternative medicine (by and large) is built on the premise that the body has the capacity to heal itself. What it needs is for us to cooperate and facilitate it in performing that task.

If instead of using diagnostic terms we get in the habit of using the equivalent of first thoughts - an accurate and present description of our experience of discomfort, then we can ask ourselves the next question, which is "What would make me feel better, right now?"

This principle applies in many situations beyond physical symptoms or emotional states. In fact opportunities for its application are bountiful. Attending to the ways that we chose to tell ourselves and others our unfolding stories is the first step in changing them and in doing so, changing our lives.

One example: A person was told that the pain she had in her foot was caused by nerve damage. We all "know" that nerve damage is permanent, right? But how do we know that? Nevertheless, that is what we've been told, and so without even thinking about it, it has become part of our understanding. In class we did a process for many to relieve their aches and pains - which involves holding a suspended Herkimer Diamond over the point in pain. The Herkimer spins, and clears a vortex if one is present. It stops spinning when the vortex is clear. But while others found their pain lift, this person did not experience any relief.

We then worked on a number of beliefs, including that this little stone couldn't have any impact on the injured nerve in her foot; that she didn't believe her body could heal this condition; and so on. After helping her identify and then shift these unconscious ideas the pain intervention done earlier was successful: her foot pain disappeared. This doesn't mean the pain wasn't real. It merely indicates how strong the link is between the mind and sensations experienced in the body.

Another example: Seated on a plane that had not yet taxied to the runway, I became aware of petrol fumes in the cabin. It happens that I am extremely sensitive to volatile chemicals. At first I began to feel a bit dizzy, and caught myself anticipating being affected and getting ill. I caught myself at it, and changed my attention to see what my imagination could come up with to address the situation. I decided I would pretend to have an oxygen supply feeding directly to my nostrils. I took light gentle breaths, and was able to breathe over the top of the petrol scent. Immediately the dizziness resolved. Does that mean I had made up the presence of these fumes? Not at all. I simply changed my relationship to those fumes by engaging my imagination in a more optimistic fashion.

My friend just wrote to say she thought her trip would be interrupted because the remains of hurricane Ida are on her flight path. She agreed to notice and change her ideas about her flight tomorrow. We don't know the outcome as yet, but the predictions for the storm's path have been revised and will be east of her flight path. Now here's the thing. We don't know if changing her thoughts actually affected this outcome. We can't really document the extent to which our thoughts impact storms. But we do know that our thoughts impact how we feel in this moment. And this moment is the only one we have. Meanwhile, in case we do have an impact on how events unfold, isn't it better to imagine them the way we prefer instead of getting ourselves stressed imagining the worst sorts of outcomes? Besides, this can be great fun, playing around with our thoughts and seeing what comes of it.

In fact, increasing research has been done on the link between what we are told by those in authority and what we experience. We probably all can cite examples of someone being told by a physician that they had only a short time span before they would die of a cancer. Some people, hearing this news, succumb even sooner. Others defy these odds and go on to live many years. The bottom line is that our bodies listen to everything we hear and everything we think. We have the power to change our thoughts and to revise what we hear so it is more to our liking.

Thinking follows habitual patterns. And it takes attention and desire to change such habits. Start by listening to the speech patterns of those around you. Silently and internally revise any negativity you observe. Those observations will serve as a mirror to help you become more aware of your own patterns of thought.

Next take a few minutes each day to tune into your thoughts. Notice if there are specific patterns that you are repeating. Are you being harsh with yourself? Are you angry at the world? Is there grief waiting to be addressed? Or fear? Turn around any thoughts that don't serve you well.

Finally, see if you can find friends to play with you, making it a game to help each other notice and revise your language. Then observe the changes unfold in your sense of well-being.