5 step model for physical and emotion pain. Acknowledge what is going on right now. Notice your body, thoughts. List what is going on for you right now without judging it, just a factual list. Noticing the body, areas of tension, tightness, sensations in the body Noticing the breath, the speed, the depth, the quality of the breath.

2. The unpleasant Moving towards the unpleasant. Facing the pain, not blocking but seeing it for what it is. Turning attention to explore and lean into the unpleasant. Breathing into and focusing on your breath to help anchor yourself to be with the pain. Exploring it with curiosity and not judgement just exploring. A kind attitude to the area of pain, allowing painful sensations to be present. Even if you cant remove the pain having a caring attitude like turning towards a loved one in pain and offering to listen with kindness. Noticing if it changes from moment to moment, its colour and quality, noticing difference in it moment by moment. Focus on the direct experience now, not the thoughts or ideas about the pain. Focus on breathing, not tensing

3 The pleasant Noticing, taking in the pleasant that is present right in this moment. Allowing yourself to feel and notice the good things. The warmth of the bed or the contact with the soft pillow if you are in bed, the sounds outside, the clouds, people around you, a beautiful thing nearby like a flower, the sunlight or smell of dinner. In every moment there is always something pleasant and spending a moment to find it. The face of someone near is unique, the patterns your eyes make when closed, noticing a picture on the wall, or just the sensation in your body as your relax. Noticing the good and pleasant in the moment.

4. Hold all things in awareness Taking a wide angle lens to be able to hold awareness and presence of all things in this moment, the unpleasant and the pleasant. Expanding to hold like a large container all sensations and sounds and sights and experiences happening right now. When you do this you release there is so very many things happening in every moment, the rain, the birds, the clouds and trees outside, the warmth of the room, an ache in the leg, fatigue & heaviness in shoulders and arms, your breathing, the size of the room, the touch of the chair, sound of cars and voices, the smell of toast. This can dilute the stress and change perspective and make you realise that it is possible to hold difficulty and be with and to bring in everything else in the same moment to put it in perspective. Difficulty is only experience moment by moment along with many other things also contained in that moment. Including all aspects of this moment with the pain or difficulty allows you to ‘see’ other people and let them into your awareness so you are not consumed or become your pain/suffering. It is just one aspect of this moment with all the other aspects.

5. Choosing how to respond rather than react 5. Choosing how to respond rather than react. Identifying the primary suffering and how to respond to the secondary suffering. This may be just recognising that you feel grumpy and annoyed and just telling people you need to get some time to yourself, or taking medication, or lying down, or choosing to distract yourself with music or TV , a movie or a book, but making a choice.