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Posts by Katie Fleming Thomas

Katie is a trauma-informed psychotherapist, meditation teacher, and guide who helps others cultivate mindfulness and resilience. She is the creator of Freebird Meditations, offering transformative guided practices, and ZenQuit, a mindfulness-based nicotine cessation program. When not guiding others, she finds meditation in everyday life, gardening, baking sourdough, dancing, and hiking with her husband and animals. She believes true transformation happens when we turn inward with curiosity and compassion.

Katie Fleming Thomas's Website

Awareness and Self-Compassion: Two Powerful Tools for Chronic Pain

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“Pain is not wrong. Reacting to pain as wrong initiates the tangle of emotional resistance against what is already happening.” ~Tara Brach

The wooden meditation hall creaked softly as sixty people shifted in their seats, trying to find comfort in the silence. Outside, winter rain tapped against the windows, a gentle metronome marking time. I sat cross-legged on my black cushion, watching sweat trickle down my temple despite the cool air. My legs burned as if I’d been running for hours, though I hadn’t moved in forty-five minutes.

It was day three of my first six-day silent meditation retreat, and …