Body Point Spotting for Pain

Today we learn to use Body Point Spotting specifically for pain management.

The Pain Principle

Pain tends to fix attention. When something hurts, attention gets pulled there and stuck. The hurt area demands focus. The more you attend to it, the more intense it becomes. This creates a feedback loop: pain grabs attention, attention amplifies pain.

Body Point Spotting can break this loop. By deliberately moving attention through and away from the painful area, you interrupt the fixation. The pain often reduces, moves, or releases.

The Pain Application

When you have pain somewhere:

1. Start with a few points IN the hurt area - put attention directly on the pain, briefly
2. Then move attention AWAY from it - toward the extremities
3. Work outward from the pain
4. Return to the hurt area briefly
5. Move away again
6. Repeat this: in, out, in, out

Example: Lower back pain

• Spot a point in the lower back (where it hurts)
• Spot a point in the upper back (moving away)
• Spot a point in the shoulder area (further away)
• Spot a point in the lower back again
• Spot points down: buttocks, thighs, knees, calves, feet
• Return to lower back
• Out again: up toward neck, down toward feet
• Continue for 5-10 minutes

What Often Happens

With pain work, you might experience:

• Pain reducing in intensity
• Pain moving to a different location (this is usually good - it means something is releasing)
• A moment of sharper pain followed by release
• Gradual fading of discomfort
• Nothing obvious (but often improvement noticed later)

Don’t have expectations. Sometimes pain clears quickly. Sometimes it takes many sessions. Sometimes it doesn’t respond to this technique and needs different intervention. Just observe what happens.

Why It Works

Pain fixates attention. By deliberately directing attention in and then away, repeatedly, you’re telling the perceptual system: “I acknowledge this, AND there’s more to notice.” The fixation breaks. The body part stops being the only focus. Often, this alone allows release.

There’s also a principle that what you fully confront tends to release. By putting attention directly on pain (not avoiding it), you’re confronting it. This is different from the avoidance most people do - tensing against pain, trying not to feel it. Direct attention, paradoxically, often reduces pain more than avoidance.

Today’s Practice

Do Body Point Spotting for 10 minutes.

If you have any current pain or discomfort: Try the pain version. Put attention on the hurt area, then outward, then back, then outward. Notice what happens.

If you have no pain currently: Do the standard version (shoulders to feet and back). File the pain technique for later use - you’ll need it eventually.