No such thing as good or bad: How non-judgement can help with reducing persistent pain

The stoic philosopher Epictetus wrote about ‘the real source of harm’. He concluded that it isn’t the person who takes a swipe at you who harms you. The harm comes from your beliefs about what the event means. While it may be difficult to accept, pain in itself is not good or bad. It just is. How you label it has the capacity to increase pain, or decrease it. The mindfulness attitude of non-judgement can help with reducing persistent pain.

You might be thinking – how can I be non-judging? Don’t I make judgements all the time? Mindfulness does not say stop making judgements. It encourages you instead to notice judgements, and not to be led into habitual unhelpful reactions because of judgements. Reactions that could be?increasing your pain.

It’s not that judgements are bad per se, they are only thoughts. And these can be misleading. The human mind is great at taking fragments of information and building an inaccurate picture. Leaving you with increased pain, tension and stress. Mindfulness meditation has been shown to?reduce pain, in both clinical and experimental settings.

To read more on the role of non-judgement in reducing persistent pain, click here.