[cardanome]

It's just not not having anything to distract you of your mental pain. Like having a flesh wound and instead of using pain killers, you put you finger on the wound and actually focus on the pain. That would be quite stressful, right?

Have you ever had something bad happen and you try to distract yourself by working or watching something? Meditation feels like the reverse of that.

[argentinian]

It can feel like that when you resist the painful memory or emotion. But if you stay with it, accepting it, neither rejecting nor holding it, you may notice that it dissolves. It's like the effect of exposure in behavioral therapy, phobias are treated with sustained exposure to the feared stimulus.

[cardanome]

The process is still painful.

Yeah, I know how to accept them and don't resist but it's not like I will be able to sort out my issues in a 20min session. The best I can hope is to get to the deeper issues which will be even more painful.

I personally found the combination of regular physical exercise plus reading physical books (training my concentration, helping me relaxing) the best way to stay productive. If I meditate then after physical exercise when my body is full of happiness hormones giving me a nice cool-down.

[hutzlibu]

"If I meditate then after physical exercise when my body is full of happiness hormones giving me a nice cool-down. "

Yup, that is a good combination. And if you do sports in nature, you might find good spots to calm down in between. Being next to moving water I found helpful, or atop on some mountain with the wind.

(but no smartphone to distract me)

[argentinian]

The pain is painful, but finite. I wonder if keeping it buried deeply has our hasn't consequences.