by Sarah Bigham, Artist and Author

     Thanks to Lori Leitzel Rice for inviting me to contribute my patient-focused perspective on practitioner communication. Lori is my CranioSacral massage therapist and a dear friend who has seen me through the worst times of my life. I am forever grateful for CranioSacral techniques as well as Lori’s wonderful, listening hands.

     My name is Sarah and I am a chronic pain warrior. I wish a support group existed for people like me, held in a location down the block (car travel makes me flare) with squishy furniture (the only kind I can sit on comfortably, and even then for a maximum of 30 minutes), multiple bathrooms (I have interstitial cystitis, among a host of other things, and those of us with this condition always feel like we have to pee), and maybe donuts (although only a few of us could eat them given the number of special diets chronic pain patients are advised to follow). I would like to be surrounded by others with unrelenting pain, to feel connected to a fellowship of sufferers whose daily victories of staying alive and getting out of bed are remarkable accomplishments. I want us to be able to gather, a logistical impossibility due to the fickle nature of chronic pain, leaving us without the ability to plan activities as we never know if today will be a “good” day or a bad day, with good days being relative.

Rooting & Containment Meditation
In our 4th Dharma talk we are kick-starting our enquire into the movement of consciousness, by combining two meditations that take us to a greater sense of inwardness and centredness.  Although this is the fourth in the series, each of these Dharma Talks are designed to be both individual and cumulative. For individuals wanting to begin and really deepen into a stillness practice, it would be great to begin with the first Dharma talk and then move forward. And for individuals interested in this particular topic, this presentation will be fully wonderful on its own as well.