I think everyone is right here. It is possible to chip away on it, but as Fuzzy says, it's kind of like pushing that boulder up the steep hill in the middle of the night.

I am trying to learn to stop and pay attention when I am in pain, and as turtle says, try to embrace myself instead of fighting with it, saying I shouldn't feel that way, etc. Thicht Nhat Hahn (sp) talks about this, that when you are aware of discomfort, irritation, depression, or whatever, that you not fight against it, that you embrace it as if it were, in his words, a "tender little baby", and tell it you're here for it, because all of that, good and bad, are parts of the entity that is your self.

What I have the most trouble with is just stopping and holding still with myself and trying to do the comforting, when the rest of myself is saying, "What the f--- are you doing just sitting there when there are umpteen tasks to be accomplished??? Lazy, worthless, slob, " etc. etc. I have trouble convincing myself that how I feel at that time is more important than anything I might accomplish.