Chalk cirlces
A dear friend of mine once told me the following story about his father, his father’s pain due to multiple sclerosis (MS) and his father’s discovery on managing that pain. For the purpose of my not having to type my friend’s father many times, let’s call this man Bob (no, of course that’s not his real name)
Every since Bob had been diagnosed with MS, and had started to suffer the accompanying pain, Bob had become extremely unpleasant to be around. He was grumpy, irritable and pretty much went out of his way to make everyone around him miserable. Bob refused to leave the house without protest, or try to do anything that might be fun or enjoyable. When Bob’s first grandson was born, he declined to travel to see the new baby, with the explanation, “What’s the point?”
At the suggestion of his pain management doctor, and his wife’s insistence, Bob went to a pain management class. The first thing the teacher did was draw two concentric circles on the chalk board. The teacher pointed to the inner circle and said, “This is your pain.” Then he pointed to the outer circle and said, “This is your suffering. You can’t do anything about your pain, but how much you are suffering is up to you.” The class continued in the same vein.
This idea had a profound impact on Bob, and the next morning he said to his wife, “Let’s go see a movie tonight.” Later in the week, my friend got a call at work from his mother, and she started the conversation with, “Are you sitting down?” Fearing the worst, my friend answered, “Yes.” She said, “Good, because your father said something quite surprising this morning. He told me he thought we should visit you for Thanksgiving so he can meet our grandson.” My friend tells me he came terribly close to falling out of his chair.
I was recently contacted by the author of Living Peacefully with Chronic Pain. She was interested in reviewing our herbs as a resource for her clients, and quite a lot of what she does with patients is similar to the story described above- helping them to learn to manage their suffering. Looking at her website I was reminded why I love traditional Chinese medicine so much- because TCM recognizes and emphasizes the very fundamental relationship between the physical body and the emotional spirit. Sometimes we need a little help making that connection, which is why we make our Decompress and Deep Sleeper formulas. And sometimes we are lucky enough to find it in concentric chalk circles.