I have chronic pain issues. Every day is filled with pain and while pain is subjective, I can attest mine isn’t a picnic. If you have ever had a kidney stone, that is what the base pain level I live with on a daily basis. This is how I begin and end my day. Of course, I could get painkillers for it if doctors weren’t so afraid of prescribing them, instead, I do it without help. It’s been close to 15 years that I have been doing this with only the rare and brief help from the medical community. How do I do it? I just live. Mindfulness has taught me I am not my pain, I am me and pain is something separate. It happens to me but it doesn’t define me. Does it drag me down sometimes? Yes. But I just breathe and let the pain be pain and I continue on with my life.