SPIRITUAL PRACTICES FOR MANAGING CHRONIC PAIN

Discover how ancient wisdom and modern research converge to offer hope and healing beyond traditional medicine.

- BY RONA CHERRY

For years, Wendy Gross-Pinto lived with chronic hip pain, a constant companion throughout her career as a professional athlete, dancer, and athletic yoga practitioner.

But one fateful day, her pain suddenly escalated in intensity when a cortisone steroid injection meant to ease her discomfort, in a rare complication, caused her hip to fracture. Faced with a three-month wait for hip replacement surgery—a delay her doctors said was necessary after the cortisone injection—Gross-Pinto found herself living with excruciating pain.

Offered narcotics, Gross-Pinto made a pivotal choice. “I didn’t want to go that route,” she says. Instead, she decided to face her suffering head-on and embarked on a journey of alternative healing, diving into acupuncture, meditation, Chinese medicine, deep breathing, and the wisdom of healers. She devoured books like Alan Gordon's The Way Out, seeking any shred of hope to weather the storm. “I tried anything to get through it,” she says.

Gross-Pinto’s struggle is far from unique. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 51 million Americans—nearly 21 percent of the population—experience chronic pain. These numbers tell a story of countless lives profoundly altered and often devastated emotionally and spiritually by unrelenting pain.

“It’s a complete existential crisis for people,” says Rev. Serene Jones, Ph.D., president of Union Theological Seminary in New York. “These individuals often find themselves wrestling with questions of meaning, purpose, and identity in the face of ongoing suffering.”