Pain and happiness are equal opportunities.
There is a very practical pranayama and meditation posture in hatha yoga, called full lotus sitting.
It's very simple to say, just sit up straight, put your left foot on the root of your right thigh, heel against your right lower abdomen, and then put your right foot on the root of your left thigh, with the center of your foot facing the sky as far as possible, heel against your left lower abdomen and knees against the ground. The position of your feet is interchangeable.
But when you do this for the first time, your ankles and knees will feel intense pain. Many people just can't stand this kind of pain, break their feet to the lower abdomen and give up, or choose the half lotus sitting next to them.
I have given up many times, and occasionally being able to persist for a few minutes is also the result of shifting my attention to other parts.
Until one time, I decided to try to get along with this kind of pain, not to resist, not to escape, to close my eyes and feel the pain in my ankle quietly, to take a deep breath and breathe slowly.
Slowly, a feeling naturally came to my mind, as if my breathing was not done by my lungs and respiratory tract, but by my ankles and knees.
In other words, I feel the painful part breathing freely, as if all the joints are slowly fluctuating with this long rhythm. The unbearable pain in the past is gradually withdrawing, and instead, these two parts are gradually growing upwards, just like the buds that have just drilled out of the soil in spring, stretching their leaves towards the vast blue sky for the first time.
The meditation lasted more than half an hour. When I came out, I understood what it was to get along with pain calmly.
The motivation that made me decide to make this attempt came from a book.
Psychologist Wu Zhihong mentioned in his book The Body Know the Answer that when you have some negative emotions, don't try to resist or escape. The best way is to respect the existence of this emotion, allow it to surge in your heart and immerse yourself in this emotion. Slowly, you can read the information behind your emotions. When you fully understand why this emotion appears, it will gradually melt away and become a deeper understanding of yourself.
A friend of mine always likes to tell me some inspirational quotes, golden sentences of success and so on. From time to time, or he is really not good at words, every few days he will leave me an encouraging word like "Come on" on the chat platform for no reason. I often joke that he wants to give me "chicken blood".
We had a profound exchange and talked to each other about the hardships and pressures in life. I understand why he gave me chicken blood. Because his way of coping with pressure is to resist and confront suffering, hoping to finally overcome suffering. It is not easy to let this spirit of struggle not slack off for a long time and let your actions not slack off. Therefore, he really needs to be inspired, encouraged and moved by this strong emotional stimulus.
He hopes that I can overcome the hardships in life like him, so he is always very kind and gives me "chicken blood" every once in a while. At this time, I know that it is not me who needs spiritual encouragement, but him.
I don't regard stress as my enemy. Like other elements in life, there is no distinction between high and low. You need peace of mind when you come. Don't get excited when you go. You get along with pressure calmly, without impatience or escape. What you do is not to fight against stress, but to become a natural state of life like breathing.
Just as treating pain and comfort is the same feeling and treating pain and happiness is the same opportunity, learn to get along with them and put these ordinary emotions in your normal heart.