Pain is not only a physical sensation. It also changes the way we pay attention.

According to the Four Attention Styles Theory, pain naturally pulls us into a narrow, objective style of attention. In simple terms, our awareness contracts around the pain and begins treating it like an enemy that has to be removed.

You can hear it in the way people describe their experience:

“I can’t stop feeling this pain.”
“I just want to get rid of it.”
“My back is killing me.”
“My knee is the problem.”

Attention becomes narrow because the pain constantly pulls awareness back toward itself. Everything else fades into the background.

At the same time, attention becomes objective. The painful part of the body starts to feel separate from the rest of us, almost like an unwanted object we are fighting against.

According to Dr Lester Fehmi, the creator of Open Focus, this narrowed style of attention may actually amplify suffering and keep the nervous system locked in a state of tension and alertness.

The goal of Open Focus is not to “fight” the pain harder.
The goal is to gradually change the way attention relates to the pain.

Instead of becoming narrower and more contracted, attention slowly becomes broader and more connected.

This shift has two important parts:

1. Broadening attention

Rather than focusing only on the painful sensation, the person learns to include many sensations in awareness at the same time.

The pain is still there, but it becomes part of a much wider field of experience instead of dominating the entire mind.

One of the simplest ways to begin is by becoming aware of:

  • both hands at the same time
  • the lips and tongue
  • the space around the body
  • the space inside the body

This is very different from distraction.

Distraction means trying not to notice the pain.

Broad attention means including the pain within a larger field of awareness.

As attention widens, the nervous system often begins to settle. The pain may feel less sharp, less emotionally overwhelming, and less central.

2. Connecting with the pain instead of fighting it

The second step is often the most surprising.

Instead of resisting the pain, the person is encouraged to gently connect with it.

This does not mean liking the pain or giving up. It means dropping the constant internal struggle against it.

In Open Focus exercises, people are often guided to:

  • notice the centre of the pain
  • soften around it
  • allow it to exist without immediately trying to push it away

At first this can feel counterintuitive, because most of us have spent years bracing against discomfort.

But something important often happens when resistance softens.

The pain may stop feeling like a completely separate “thing” attacking the body. The sense of conflict decreases. Tension around the pain begins to release.

Many people describe this as:

  • the pain becoming softer
  • more spacious
  • less solid
  • less frightening
  • easier to live with
  • or sometimes gradually dissolving altogether

According to Dr Fehmi’s, this shift toward broader and more immersed attention is associated with increased alpha synchrony in the brain, a calmer and more integrated pattern of brain activity linked to relaxation and regulation.

How the Open Focus dissolving pain exercise works

The exercise usually progresses in stages:

First

Attention is gently broadened by becoming aware of sensations coming from both hands, the lips, and the tongue at the same time.

These areas were chosen partly because they have a very large representation in the sensory areas of the brain.

Second

Attention is widened further by becoming aware of the space in the room around the body.

Third

The participant begins to experience:

  • the hands
  • lips
  • tongue
  • surrounding space
  • and the pain

all within one field of awareness.

Finally

The pain itself is included inside this broader attentional field instead of becoming the single dominant object of focus.

Over time, this can create a very different relationship with pain.

Not through force.
Not through suppression.
But through flexibility of attention.

And sometimes, when the nervous system stops fighting so hard, the pain begins to change on its own.

You can watch a short presentation explaining that mechanism.

You can try free the Dissolving physical pain in Open Focus exercise below. Before listening to it make sure the cause of the pain is understood. Pain may reduce or dissolve during the exercise, while the underlying problem may still be present. Do not drive or operate machinery while doing this exercise.