KNEE BRACE PRESS

A place for stories about chronic illness, disability, mental health, and neurodivergence.

Hospital Mindfulness Program Pantoum

By

Transient discomfort of uncertain origin
Activating ancient internal reactions
Nervous system need for safety and satisfaction
Learned response and behaviour no longer serve survival

Activating ancient internal reactions
Mind and body experience of unpleasantness
Learned response and behaviour no longer serves survival
Focussing breath to anchor attunement

Mind and body experience of unpleasantness
Pausing to notice the self and existence
Focussing breath to anchor attunement
Expanding capacity of ways to relate 

Pausing to notice the self and existence
Breathing curiosity around thoughts and sensations
Expanding capacity of ways to relate
Inviting new neural pathways to form inside

Breathing curiosity around body sensations
Nervous system need for safety and satisfaction
Inviting new neural pathways to form inside
Transient discomfort of uncertain origin

Contributor

  • Rebecca Wood lives with her plants and craft supplies in Toronto, Canada. She delights in writing as a playful exploration of being human and what it means to exist in a body with multiple chronic illnesses and episodic disability. Her work can be found in Wordgathering: A Journal of Disability Poetry and Literature, Corporeal, The Blood Project and Pinhole Poetry. Her poem Emergency Contact received an honourable mention in the League of Canadian Poet’s Summer Lovin’ contest. Her debut chapbook “Multimorbid” will be published by kith books in 2025.