Making space for the pain

I think most of us do everything we can to avoid pain. I certainly do. Whether physical or emotional I don't want to hurt. It's ridiculous to think we can live a life on this planet without pain and suffering yet with all my avoidance techniques, I suppose a little part of me thinks I can out run it. So what would it look like to allow the pain to always be present but still have a happy existence?

For physical pain I mostly have come to a level of acceptance that it will always be there and have taken proactive steps to manage it. I have a condition called seronegative spondyloarthopathy - the easiest explanation being that I have symptoms of an autoimmune disease but it's not showing up in the blood work - falls under the fybromyalgia umbrella. My pain level on a daily basis rarely falls below an 8 on a scale of 1-10. And my way of dealing with it (as I do most things in life) is to plow through and still do what I want...I just smile through the pain and have accepted it will likely always be there. I get roughly a 2-3 hour window per day where I have relief through a combo of yoga and weed. (If you don't know this I'm a huge proponent of legalization of marijuana, and though I have multiple conditions that would qualify me for medical marijuana, I'm refusing that for many reasons. 
) I make space for the pain and refuse to let it take me under.

I can suck it up for physical pain as I've had decades of managing it. But emotional pain and hurt are an entirely different story. How we perceive our stories also greatly contributes to what this does to us: do we rise above, crumble or go numb? Sadly I waver between crumble and go numb. 

So how do you make space for the pain that won't go away and still maintain sanity? A friend commented one my posts and said these words which gave a calmer and open response to suffering, "I’ll meditate a little and cautiously greet whatever emotional visitor approaches". Greet, observe, pay attention, see what comes up, stop avoiding. 

This feels doable.