Pain is an Opportunity

It is ingrained in most of us to shrink from pain, to try to make it go away as soon as possible, to fade into darkness and make ourselves vanish from the scene if we can't make it disappear. This is absolutely understandable and reasonable.
But in our work we may find ourselves in a space where pain is ongoing... Never stopping and never ending. Like a giant wave, it may threaten to swallow us up completely.
Once that space is reached (and if we are truly working, it will be reached) we face our greatest challenge and our greatest opportunity.
When the pain is at it peak, invoke your presence, invoke the central "I" in you that is absolutely devoted and committed to working and let it do its job. Let it take the pain and transform it, shape it, change it and raise it above its confines.
Beware! The pain won't go away.
But your habits might.