Pain can be subdued with the help of a vivid imagination........................

Some say that when we visualize something, the brain

can at times find it hard to distinguish between a vivid 

imagination and that which we experience as reality.

Let me be blunt.

I'm in pain. Mentally and physically.

Have been for years.

Some days are worse than others. 

It was during one

of those really worst of days that I discovered

a way to

escape my pain by utilizing the power

of imagination.

This particular day the pain was so intense that

 I couldn't even get out

of bed to grab some pain-killers.

Even the tiniest of movement and my stomach

would lurch.

Although even the act of mere thinking hurt, 

somehow suddenly

I remembered someone telling me that it is

possible to make the brain/mind ''think/believe'' 

something to be real/actually happening with the help 

of a very vivid imagination.

Stuck there in my bed, unable to move and barely

capable of breathing, I closed my eyes and visualized

myself being an eagle, soaring high above snow

clad mountains. 

I became the eagle.

My eyes viewed the mountains, I heard the

winds, I smelt the ice-cold air, I felt my

wings slowly moving.

Gliding through the air all my attention was

focused on being there, there....in the mind of an

eagle.

I was no longer aware of my pain, I was only

 experiencing a sense of freedom and lightness that

I imagined soaring like an eagle entailed.

As to the amount of time that may have passed while 

I ''was soaring'' I have no idea, but

what I do know is that when I opened my eyes again,

I was able to get out of my bed, slowly walk to

the bathroom and finally

take some over-the counter pain-killers.

With blurry,  bloodshot eyes I looked at my watch.

5:30 am.

I went back to bed.

I went back to being an eagle.

(Since then I have ''soared'' many times.)

Imagination.

''Logic will get you from A to B.

Imagination will take you everywhere.''

(Albert Einstein)

Pain, including chronic pain, due to some

 form of illness, is in my view insidious.

 It tends to be stealthy, obnoxious, crafty

and so on, but worst of all, ....relentless.

If that's not bad enough, pain that is caused

by something not visible to the naked eye,

well, that's worse still. 

Why? Because it can so easily be

dismissed as ''imaginary''.

And as such, in my experience ''imaginary''

pain is often viewed as not

 ''deserving" of neither compassion nor sympathy.

Quandary: Imagination is ''good or bad'' according 

to the ''eyes of the beholder''.

Imagination, in my view is a tool.

It can be used in ways that enhances and

enriches our lives,

or it can be used in ways that diminish

and disparage our lives.

We are the ones using the tool so we must chose

how to use it.

''The man who has no imagination

has no wings.''

(Muhammad Ali)

 

about the image: Ink on paper

Title: ''I will soar like an Eagle''