"Of all things guaranteed to make the body more restful, I can think of none better than sitting in the centre of a woodland area or by a calm stream watching peaceful waters flow. Peace is the perfect marriage between a person and the planet. As Albert Camus said, 'Peace is the only battle worth waging.'
Within each man, woman and child can be found a centre of stillness surrounded by silence, This is what I have come to know as the serenity of the soul. Its importance lies not in it being able to show you the way; it is the way!
It is not surprising that being close to raging seas fascinates mankind and that being beside still waters calms him. Far better, when stressed with the everyday worries of life to find some peaceful stream to sit by and allow your cares to drift away with the current of its passage. It is no coincidence that water covers 71% of the earth's surface and that without it we could not live. Look therefore upon water as representing the mother and matrix of nature, and still rivers as the medium of solitude and perfect peace.
Over the past four years, due to my condition of cancer, I have often been in considerable pain. Had I not possessed the ability to mediate that pain, my life would have been very hard to negotiate. I have lived with a degree of pain in my legs every day since the age of eleven years and have mainly used relaxation and meditation as opposed to analgesics to manage that pain. As a person who has practised relaxation training for sixty years and taught it for fifty, I know the importance of distraction and imagery in the process of finding relief. We each have different scenes which help us to relax and to focus our mind away from pain. Mine has always been either the verdant and vibrant woodland or the passage of a peaceful stream. Both scenes bring the body back into union with the beauty of nature and represent the peaceful passage of life. It becomes physiologically more difficult to feel pain when you are experiencing a vivid image of beauty which induces peace and tranquility of mind. An image or any action which produces pleasure releases endorphins in the body that block the passage of pain.Endorphins are neurotransmitters found in the brain that binds to opiate receptors and produce a feeling of pain relief also known as analgesia.
Consequently, knowing that the longer you can hold that peaceful image or feelings of excitement, the longer you will block the passage of pain to your body. Imagine any activity which is capable of giving you intense pleasure such as sex. At the height of one's pleasure, there is no likelihood that one's mind will be on their painful hands or feet, is there? Imagine having a body constantly filled with intense pain, when suddenly, you see your son run towards you; a son you believed had been kidnapped and killed ten years earlier. Don't be surprised as you hold him in your arms if all thought of personal pain is nowhere to be temporarily felt.
Whenever I have had any operation in hospital since I first practised meditation techniques as a teenager, my mind will be not on any area of body pain, but on my peaceful stream which flows through my woodland. Even when the pain does not disappear, it is greatly diminished and mediated. In such manner of distraction have I made the pain in my body tolerable since my teenage years.Have a nice day." William Forde: September 1st, 2017.