Hello Dan:
I'd thought I'd share a couple of thoughts. First I'd refer you to Arnold Patent's book The Journey where he has a Feeling exercise. Which involves feeling your Feelings without labels or judgement. (You could probably find the whole exercise if you search the forums (esp. AFL)).
To me there are two types of pain. Pain that keeps me safe and pain that keeps me limited. I've found that if my pain is posture or strain related I find it harder to not consider it safety related pain and so I progress slowly.
However, in meditation I've noted that some pain (remember Patent and it's a label and judgement) like from a cut, head-ache, internal discomfort can seem to be magnified once I start to meditate. This kind of pain I find very encouraging. I remind myself that if I was just sitting here and not meditating then the pain would be only normal strength. I accept the increase sensation (feeling; loosing the judgement of pain) as a sign that the SFQ practice is working and the universal energy is flowing strongly to help me. So in these cases I have little trouble staying with the feeling, by loosing the label and judgement, and showing gratitude for the gifts from the universe.
Maybe I could gain as much benefit from the other kind of pain (sensation), but my experience has shown me that at times I will accidentally hurt myself. Last week is a good example. I took a wipe out on my bike in the gravel. The experience was a lot less that I expect. I believe this is because of how I embraced it and filled all the cuts with love and universal energy.
You are perfection,
Iam2
