Sometimes you make a commitment to do something, and no matter what, you keep it. Say, for instance, you commit to speaking to a group of students and faculty at Flashpoint Academy about being a media professional but you have a MASSIVE FLARE-UP that morning and all you want to do instead is lie on the couch in a Big Pharma- and cupcake-induced haze.

But you’re a commited gal, and so you medicate with Tylenol and a spicy tuna roll instead and head downtown on the train. Cold rain spatters your sensible shoes, hat and winter coat as you walk through the downtown streets toward the campus.

Even though the pain is huge, you psych yourself up and give what you think is a pretty interesting presentation with Francine Sanders, director of core studies at the school. Elena (a student who helped organize the talk) gives you a tour afterward that is fascinating; the school’s CEO and president, Howard Tullman, is a modern art fan and the halls are chock full of gorgeous works. You could spend all afternoon here admiring and pondering.

It’s not until the walk back to the train station that you realize you’ve been blocking out the pain. It seeps back in around the edges, getting worse as you get closer to home. All those pain management tricks you’ve practiced for years really paid off today; you visualized yourself feeling great and strong and healthy and it worked for a couple hours. Now you can collapse onto the couch, but you’ll eschew the pain meds. The Cubs home opener is on TV and what you really need is some water and rest.

But hey! Here’s the coolest part. For a little while there, you were completely immersed in an awesome new experience. You were fully present. Even with Big Pain you were there, then, in that moment, with those people. And it was totally worth it.

This experiment just might be working.