If we explore pain as sensation made of non-pain elements, we might come to a place where we don't feel so cornered when we are in pain. Maybe we have discovered impermanence by noticing that pain is always changing in one way or another. Perhaps our pain has nourished compassion within us as we realize that many others have pain like ours. We might even look on our pain as a gift that teaches us patience, gives us the strength to endure, makes us more mindful, and reminds us that our life span is finite, our connection to life fragile.

Joan Halifax, Being with Dying