BEFRIENDING PAIN
MINDFULNESS • LOVING-KINDNESS • YIN YOGA
MADRID, SPAIN
Pain and discomfort.
The very words themselves can give rise to tension within the mind, a feeling of aversion, fear and a need to push away.
But what would happen if the mind no longer felt the need to run away and hide from discomfort? What if the mind could hold space for pain, instead of incessantly push away in aversion? What, then, would happen to our relationship with the inevitable discomforts that arise within embodied experience?
There is a primordial drive within all living beings to move and get away from discomfort and pain. This conditioned survival mechanism within the mind is in turn exacerbated by a culture which demonizes pain, pushing upon us innumerable quick-fix strategies to (temporarily) relieve our discomfort. A futile process which only fuels the unrelenting needs of the conditioned mind to get away from anything perceived as uncomfortable, in the long-run increasing our pain and suffering.
Although well intentioned in its attempts to get away from these unpleasant states, the conditioned mind’s aversive reactivity to discomfort itself is, paradoxically, that which perpetuates the cycles of pain, impedes healing and prevents the mind’s innate ability to find freedom from suffering.
But what if, through the training of the mind, we could reframe our relationship to pain? No longer looking upon it as an enemy and as something we have to get away from but, instead, seeing pain as an intrinsic part of embodied life, a teacher and a catalyst for healing and spiritual growth? What would happen if, instead of running away from pain, we befriended it?
In this masterclass we will discuss, through Western neuroscience, primatology, Western and Buddhist psychology and the teacher’s extensive history with athletic-related injuries (and healing), the nature of the conditioned mind that gives rise to the suffering experienced in relation to bodily pain.
Our opening talk will awaken our intellectual understanding of the perceptual process of pain and suffering within the human mind and body.
This intellectual understanding will then be integrated with the Buddhist practices of loving-kindness (metta) and mindfulness (satipatthana vipassanā) meditation, applying them to a passive yin yoga practice that catalyzes experiential understanding and radically shifts the mind’s relationship towards pain and discomfort. A shift that, if continued through consistent practice, can dramatically rewrite one’s entire experience of life itself.
Practitioners will learn how to compassionately sit with, as opposed to be embattled against, the inherent unpleasant states of human embodiment. Each of us will leave with an empirical understanding and new found ability to find refuge, within awareness, from that which the mind has been running away from since time immemorial.
The imperative first-step towards healing and embodied well-being.
This masterclass is designed and applicable for everyone, especially those currently living with physical pain. However, as nothing can prevent the inevitable pains and discomforts experienced within our shared human existence, even those individuals not currently living with physical pain and illness should take advantage of the opportunity to commence the training of the mind for the teachings of the unpleasant that the journey of life will certainly gift to each of us at one point or another.
Details:
All Levels Welcome
Discussion + Metta Meditation + Vipassanā Meditation + Yin Yoga asana practice
To register for this Masterclass, please visit:
https://www.zentrourbanyoga.com/talleres-yoga-madrid