Pain As A Teacher

Now, I am a teacher. Really good teachers are respectful but firm with their students. I have had to raise my voice with only one student, ever. I was teaching her the same short song every week, with no progress. She couldn't (or wouldn't) remember how to play basic notes, the first ones taught in every beginning lesson book ("open strings" for anyone who happens to play a string instrument).

Over and over we went on this one song. I calmly kept reminding her how to play the notes she was stuck on. Every time she tried to play, it was a different set of notes she stumbled over. She was calm and intelligent. I believe she was just plain lazy and didn't feel inclined to spend her brain waves on such trivial stuff.

So I finally had it. I raised my voice somewhat, at a volume that was loud for me. She looked shocked. Oh, really?

Guess what? She finally heard me. Miraculously, she could suddenly play the song perfectly.

Pain is a great teacher when more subtle tactics don't work.

The back pain that I had been suffering from the past week has greatly subsided. I deferred to its teaching by sitting and resting more during the day, and by doing some stretching recommended by internet research and my physical-therapist next-door neighbor.

My back is saying THANK YOU!!! It had to inflict this pain on me for me to take it easier while I'm at home. The tightness in my back needed tending to. I needed to be inspired to research a cure. Just knowing I should start stretching "one of these days" is not valid any more than my student coasting along week after week.

A Buddhist friend of mine said recently that when our body is having pain, instead of being angry, we should welcome it and ask what it is trying to teach us.

What are your great motivators to change? Great resistance requires greater force. I believe we unwittingly invite pain when less force goes unheeded.