When we feel pain, we have a natural instinct to turn away from it. Of course we do - pain feels horrible. But years of ignoring, suppressing, or denying our suffering can leave us out of tune and in the dark about who and what we really are. Through seven guided meditations, you will learn how to listen deeply to you body and - just like you would with a close friend - hear its pain and suffering with a kind, non-critical, non-judgemental ear. By doing this you will become close friends with your body, and see it not as an obstacle to overcome or gain control over, but as an integral element of your self-development journey.

In meditation 1, I'll invite you to truly encounter your body by 'turning the lamp around' and shining the light of your awareness within. Then, in meditation 2, you'll come to face your body more and more by genuinely and deeply looking within. Exploring your emotional world is the focus of meditation 3, and in meditation 4 we’ll be setting an intention to make friends with your discomforts and pains by smiling inwardly at them. In meditation 5 I'll be guiding a period of spontaneous movement where you can let the wisdom of your body find expression, then in meditation 6 we'll tune into the energetic dimension of our body through a simple visualisation practice. In the final practice, meditation 7, we'll explore working with the body as a Zen koan (a spiritual question or direction of enquiry) by asking the question "What is this reality of my body-mind?”.

Ultimately, this course will show you how to transform your pain and suffering into wisdom and insights into who you really are. As the old Buddhist texts say, you’ll “touch enlightenment with the body.”

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Making Friends With Your Pain