ABOUT
Sarah Anne Shockley
As the result of a work related injury in the Fall of 2007, Sarah contracted a particularly severe form of Thoracic Outlet Syndrome (TOS) and lived with severe and debilitating nerve pain for over a decade. She has been a columnist for Pain News Network, and a regular contributor to The Mighty.
The author of books on living with chronic pain, including The Pain Companion (New World Library, 2018), she is also an award-winning producer and director of educational films, including Dancing From the Inside Out, a highly acclaimed documentary on disabled dance. Sarah holds an MBA in International Marketing and has worked in high-tech management and taught undergraduate and graduate business administration. |
Sarah also publishes Women's New Thought Library, a collection of classic New Thought texts transcribed from the male-dominant language of the 1920's to wording that specifically empowers women, and the Enlighten Your Life YouTube channel which explores spiritual and metaphysical themes.
Author's Statement on Writing The Pain Companion
The Pain Companion came out of years of feeling very isolated and alone in my pain. I wanted to offer others in a similar situation the emotional, psychological, and pain management exercises and approaches that I eventually developed for myself.
As you probably already know, being injured or ill to the point of debilitation is an incredibly intense experience. Besides feeling a certain level of shock from the trauma of having your whole world turned upside down, there are a multitude of other emotional and psychological reactions that arise. These include loneliness, confusion, loss, frustration, depression, and hopelessness.
As you probably already know, being injured or ill to the point of debilitation is an incredibly intense experience. Besides feeling a certain level of shock from the trauma of having your whole world turned upside down, there are a multitude of other emotional and psychological reactions that arise. These include loneliness, confusion, loss, frustration, depression, and hopelessness.
In addition, a person undergoes an incredible amount of stress when they are unable to function fully. There are financial worries about how to pay for the necessities of life if you can no longer work. There are worries about how to physically cope with the every day tasks most of us used to take for granted, such as being able to care for children and family, cook, clean, shop, drive, take out the garbage, and even handle personal hygiene.
Any or all of these activities may have become physically impossible or extremely laborious and painful. In addition, being in constant pain is utterly exhausting and there is very little mental, emotional, or physical resources left over to participate in life anything like a normal person. Social interactions may become few and far between. With all this going on, it can become a gargantuan struggle just to get up in the morning and carry on.
In the midst of all this, I was hoping to find some help somewhere for what I was going through. What I discovered was that most of the books on pain were geared toward physical approaches to pain management, and most were written by practitioners. While they are certainly valuable for many, my condition does not do well with physical exercises so they weren't useful for me, and I was seeking a certain level of solace and understanding.
I wanted to hear from someone like me. I wanted to hear from someone who understood the daily challenges of actually living in pain, with pain, and having all of your experiences stem from or be colored by pain.
Since there was little available to me in terms of treatments, either because I couldn't afford them or because they simply didn't exist, I was pretty much left to my own devices. I found that constantly trying to battle with pain - get rid of it, avoid it, not feel it, or push it away - was more exhausting and frustrating than it was productive. What I needed was a healing modality which included pain as part of my healing journey as an integral part of the process rather than putting so much energy into eradicating it.
Over time, I created my own meditative exercises in an effort to understand the role of continued pain in my body, and eventually began working with pain as an ally in healing. I found ways to live with pain and not sink into a mire of depression or self pity. With these approaches, the acute level of pain I was in began to shift. Eventually, I decided that writing about it would not only clarify this approach for my own use, it would be helpful for others who live with chronic pain. Out of these experiences came The Pain Companion.
Any or all of these activities may have become physically impossible or extremely laborious and painful. In addition, being in constant pain is utterly exhausting and there is very little mental, emotional, or physical resources left over to participate in life anything like a normal person. Social interactions may become few and far between. With all this going on, it can become a gargantuan struggle just to get up in the morning and carry on.
In the midst of all this, I was hoping to find some help somewhere for what I was going through. What I discovered was that most of the books on pain were geared toward physical approaches to pain management, and most were written by practitioners. While they are certainly valuable for many, my condition does not do well with physical exercises so they weren't useful for me, and I was seeking a certain level of solace and understanding.
I wanted to hear from someone like me. I wanted to hear from someone who understood the daily challenges of actually living in pain, with pain, and having all of your experiences stem from or be colored by pain.
Since there was little available to me in terms of treatments, either because I couldn't afford them or because they simply didn't exist, I was pretty much left to my own devices. I found that constantly trying to battle with pain - get rid of it, avoid it, not feel it, or push it away - was more exhausting and frustrating than it was productive. What I needed was a healing modality which included pain as part of my healing journey as an integral part of the process rather than putting so much energy into eradicating it.
Over time, I created my own meditative exercises in an effort to understand the role of continued pain in my body, and eventually began working with pain as an ally in healing. I found ways to live with pain and not sink into a mire of depression or self pity. With these approaches, the acute level of pain I was in began to shift. Eventually, I decided that writing about it would not only clarify this approach for my own use, it would be helpful for others who live with chronic pain. Out of these experiences came The Pain Companion.