I have had clients who struggle with pain. I mean, we all do, in our way. But sometimes with pain, it becomes this overwhelming, amorphous entity that can be difficult to manage due to its unwieldyness. In Buddhism, there is the practice of naming things: feelings, thoughts, etc. I like taking this concept but adding a creative person's twist.
So pain. Do you have any in your body right now? Discomfort will do. :)
Close your eyes and see your pain or discomfort. What color is it? What texture is it? What shape does it take? There are no right or wrong answers; don't get caught up in this. Just be willing to go along for the ride!
I broke my tailbone last June (pretty spectacularly, I might add), and I am still in pain daily. For myself, I visualize the protective ligaments holding onto me for dear life, trying to keep my bones and muscles where they belong, even though the threat is long gone. At this moment, the color it seems to me is an eggplanty purple...dark, bruised, deep. It forms a sharp triangle following the shape of piriformis (one of the deep muscles in the hip). It is taut and sharp.
Next step: visualize introducing an element that begins to undo the pain and tension: light, warmth, breath. Be patient. Let the disintegration happen on its own time. See and feel the tension and pain becoming liquid, frayed, broken up.
Now visualize the disintegrating pain becoming so liquid/small/soft/etc that it begins to flow out of the place where it is being held/where you've been holding it. If it's in your lower body, it flows out of the bottoms of your feet and toes; for your upper body it flows down your arms and out your fingertips and palms. All of that excess muckery is drunk up by the earth and filtered and cleaned and recharged into new energy.
While being in pain or discomfort stinks and usually we want nothing more than to be out and done with it, do not rush this exercise. If you're rushing, you're not truly paying attention to what's going on in your body.
And off to sleep!
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