“Stopping the pain ourselves,” I put in (7)
I believe the answer is:
pausing
'stopping' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both to do with fundamental existence as well as being present participle verbs.
Maybe there's an association between them I don't understand?
'the pain ourselves i put in' is the wordplay.
'the pain' becomes 'pang' (pang is a kind of pain**).
'ourselves' becomes 'us'.
'put in' indicates putting letters inside.
'us'+'i'='usi'
'pang' going around 'usi' is 'PAUSING'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for pausing that I've seen before include "Stopping temporarily" , "intermission" .)