If you watch yourself have pain you're not in your body to feel it.

If you tell someone to look at something she's terrified of, she can't look at it. However, if you tell her to see herself looking at it, she's still looking at it, but for some reason she can do it that way. it's the same as the difference between sitting in the front seat of a roller coaster and sitting on a bench seeing yourself in a roller coaster.

Regulate your breathing, fix your eyes and mind on something else - perhaps a rock or a spot on the floor or ceiling. Concentrate on that object, savor it, taste it, give it color and smell the dimension. Let it absorb all your thoughts and concentration and the pain will diminish. When I was striking the makawara board as you came in, my mind was on my home in Korea. Though I was standing in my dojang, I was seeing the mountains I knew as a youngster and the children I played with, hearing their laughter and my mother's voice. I was unaware of the pain in my hand.

As you see, my mind was elsewhere. Once you can conquer pain, your whole attitude about the conquest of other things less harsh than pain is enhanced.