A few years ago I began to feel pain in my arms, especially while swimming. I didn’t give it much thought, putting it down to the fact that I was becoming more active and using muscles that hadn’t been used for a while. The pain continued, though, for about three weeks.

One morning, when I was feeling sharp twinges in my arms as I swam, I noticed a woman I didn’t know leaning against the side of the pool, just moving her arms in the water. We said good morning, and as we briefly chatted, she explained that she was exercising her arms to ease chronic pain because she had polymyalgia rheumatica.

This immediately awakened me to the need to correct my thinking about the pain I was experiencing. I silently affirmed that I was God’s, divine Spirit’s, spiritual creation and could express only God-derived qualities, such as health, beauty, and grace. I knew that pain was not true for anyone but was instead a mistaken belief without power, substance, or life.