Why I Built a Practice Around Pain

During my dissertation research, I interviewed a neuroscientist who worried aloud that we’d never “solve the problem of pain.” Why not? “Because pain is consciousness. And we’re never going to solve the problem of consciousness so…” (amusing to consider consciousness a “problem” and also instructive to contemplate how words get deployed as terms of art—but I digress). 

The deeper I get into working with pain, the truer this correlation seems. Pain holds so much mystery and knowledge, and at the same time can be utterly straightforward and—oftentimes—pretty dumb. To a large degree pain, or the possibility of pain, is what makes life alive. I live for the mysteries and depths that pain can bring us to, but I’ve also grown to appreciate its patterns and predictability. I’m not yet at the point of approaching pain as a problem to be solved, but I have come to think of pain as a (sometimes major) inconvenience that can be reckoned with and softened: essentially, it can be overcome, for a meaningful definition of that word. 

Having the honor to dialogue with those who experience daily, persistent discomfort has taught me a tremendous amount about how to work with pain, and: how to overcome it. Ultimately we all want a sense of agency—over the systems that produce pain and over our own internal mechanisms that keep us caught in its loops. 

I decided to build this practice because pain (along with consciousness) is the only topic in the world that I find endlessly, intensely, and deeply captivating. I find that I can spend every day thinking, talking, and writing about pain and how we grapple with it. 

I’d love to hear about your experiences with pain—how it impacts you (or not!), what’s worked in your search for relief, and what paths have led to dead ends or disappointments. I’ve found that nearly everyone who grapples with persistent pain has developed some niche area of expertise—be it dealing with the health care system, decoding triggers, or embracing creative ways to be with a particularly rough flare up. My dream is to bring all of those superpowers together so that we can learn from one another and collectively spiral upwards.