Hello and

in today's

in today, I'm your host, Kory Muscarra,

and in today's episode, we're

going to talk about in meditation whether you should alleviate

discomfort as it arises or practice being with it. More to come on that in a

moment. First let's settle in together with the sound of the bells. So today's topic is inspired by a question from one of our listeners.

And the question is, I've been practicing mindfulness meditation for some time now, but I have one problem.

I have atopic dermatitis, which makes my skin itch almost all the time. Would you say it's better to ignore it and continue meditating

in big discomfort or just scratch it, but then probably lose my focus.

I rely a lot on making myself comfortable before I start my practice.

So the moment I stop being comfortable, I can't concentrate on meditation.

I wonder what your advice would be. So thank you for the

question. And the reason I wanted to turn this into a podcast episode is because I think it is relevant to all of us, even if we're not

working with the skin condition or serious pain within our meditation practice. Because at the heart of this is an inquiry into,

do I alleviate the pain if I can,

or do I practice being with it?

And all of us can relate to that in meditation and also outside of meditation.

So what's the answer? Well, as you may have guessed, it's not so black and white. In fact, the answer very much

depends on you, what your

patterns of conditions are and what you know about yourself and your patterns of conditioning

in relationship to discomfort.

...