How Random Leg Cramps Taught Me To Respond More Comfortably To A Wide Variety Of Discomforts

Mindfulness doesn’t get rid of pain but it can change how it plays out.

Sometimes during meditation, I get a charley horse in my calves. It doesn’t happen very often, but it really hurts when it does. My first instinct is to fight it. I used to brace myself, stretch my leg, and pinch my upper lip, but none of my desperate interventions helped.

Practice calling off the battle with discomfort

Shinzen Young suggested observing the pain as a temporary sensation while trying to have equanimity with it — a neutral response — as it built to its peak.

This sounded like a terrible idea, but I’d learned a lot of suffering-reducing, counter-instinctual strategies from him, so I decided to observe my leg cramps as curiously as possible.

I didn’t manage to do it every time, but every time I did, I learned something I now rely on to help avoid making inevitable discomforts worse.

Reduced negotiation time

When an opportunity appears, it always seems like a bad idea. At first, I couldn’t get myself to try three-fourths of the time.

If you jump in right away, you’ll impact the trajectory and peak of the pain.

Full disclosure: it will still hurt, but the misery will be less amplified.

Reluctant hospitality

At first, even my best efforts were half-hearted at best. It gradually went from Not you again! to Show me what you’ve got to I know you! Come on in!

The progression isn’t linear. But the quicker you’re able to greet the pain with as much hospitality as you can muster, the less problematic its visit will be.

You’ll never regret investing time in this experiment.

A pleasant surprise

My leg cramps are super painful. The intensity can even escalate more quickly with less resistance.

Take heart, though. If you can make it to the peak, the relief emerging as the pain trails off can be surprisingly pleasant.