If somebody is in a lot of pain, and they’re going through some serious illness, and they are living in the past, and they’re loving it, then I would never tell anyone to change. But if they’re asking this question, then I assume there is some stress, and that the underlying reality of the present moment is causing a great deal of distress, and that they are not able to fully block out the present moment pain, and so they are looking for an outlet.

And in that case, I can say that the desire to escape, the wish for your situation to be different, is adding to that physical pain and is creating a great deal of needless suffering. So much of our suffering, I would guess 90%, isn’t from the physical cause of our pain. It is because we believe that it shouldn’t be. We don’t even allow ourselves to fully sit with that pain, explore it, or put our entire focus and curiosity on:
What actually is the feeling of pain?
What is the process?
What is the sensation?
What is the mechanism of how this feeling goes to my brain and is perceived?

When we begin to explore pain like this, we create a peace around it, a peace that not only heals our soul, but literally has been shown to diminish the experience of pain.

We can do a mindfulness exercise where we simply put our focus on the pain. And this has been shown to reduce that level of pain. It has even been shown to help people heal quicker, because when we are not stressed about our pain, we are relaxed. And when we’re relaxed, our blood vessels are open, our body is able to heal more easily. Rich, oxygenated blood can get to every part of our body and bring healing blood cells to it.

So even if we’re feeling like this escape, my mental happy place, is so much better, it is still strengthening that underlying tendency of escapism, which is tied to fear and resistance. And the more we can break that cycle of fear and resistance, the more we’re going to invite healing energy into ourselves.