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Dr. Dan: Treat your body with compassion
Posted by
JLoThursday, September 22, 2011
Dr. Dan Gottlieb (pictured at right in the Reeve Foundation offices last summer) is the resident psychologist here in the online community. He recently contributed to The Huffington Post about what it means to have compassion for your body. Here's a snippet from his piece:
In that moment I woke up to the love in my life and I saw everything in perspective. I was again reminded that love is a treasure and that arms are arms. The paralysis remained, as did the burning pain, but the suffering was diminished. At least for that moment!
All pain demands attention. And paying attention to pain saves lives. For most of us humans, when we feel any kind of pain, we begin to tell ourselves stories about what the pain means, how it happened, and who's to blame. As we speculate about what this means for our future lives, and so on, our stories become more detailed and elaborate until we have constructed grand works of fiction that we believe to be true. That's exactly what happened to me. The feelings of all-embracing love had been my grand awakening. But after that, it was as if I went right back to sleep, telling myself that the paralysis would never heal and that I would be in anguish for the rest of my life. (Of course my stories got even more elaborate, but no need to share them here; I am sure you all know what I mean.)
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Janelle
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