This article has nothing to do with coffee whatsoever.
Nor am I selling anything in this article!
This is something that I have been thinking about lately and wanted to freely offer to you. And I really hope that this can help you, encourage you and bless you.
It’s maybe kind of a serious topic, but I’m actually trying to bring a more positive light to a subject that we’re all familiar with, and one that many of us have problems dealing with (including myself)… the subject of pain.
I truly believe that this is something that can benefit every single person who will read it.
A Great Teacher
Just as death is the great equalizer, so pain is the great teacher. We all go through it. This is one of the most valuable lessons I’ve learned lately, that pain communicates with us and teaches us something.
We all almost always shun, disdain and do our best to push away our pain. I’m guilty of this. And rightly so… who enjoys pain!? Only people who have a disorder.
We’ve heard phrases that may almost sound cynical about pain like, “No pain no gain!”, “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”, or “Pain is weakness leaving the body”. These are clever and amusing at best, cynical and irreverent at worst.
The level of pain that we may go through sometimes makes us want to throw these phrases out the door.
What Is It Communicating?
I see physical pain as a communication. It’s a message from our central nervous system. It doesn’t mean we need to panic or we’re going to die.
The question is, what is pain trying to tell me? If it’s soreness in a muscle, the communication from the nervous system is, GIVE ME REST! If it’s a broken bone, the communication is THIS IS PAINFUL BECAUSE IT’S A PROBLEM THAT NEEDS ATTENTION AND FIXING OR THERE WILL BE REPROCUSSIONS!
If it’s a minor, random ache or pain in your stomach or your back or a limb or digit, the message is likely that you have nothing to worry about but your body is taking care of something.
I have learned that more often than not, my pain is this sort of message. Too often we confuse the message.
But, emotional pain is much more of a teacher than physical pain. Emotional pain teaches us about who we are, it reveals what we’re made of.
Emotional pain communicates that there’s a problem that needs to be solved also. Even the most vague, ambiguous emotional pain or discomfort in our emotions reveals something that’s going on that we need to process and deal with. If we don’t deal with it, it causes anxiety and maybe (or probably) physical symptoms.
I am learning to say to emotional pain, “Come on to me, let me see who I am and what I’m made of. Make me stronger.” This is the most healthy thing I can find to do with it, having been through years of panic disorder, anxiety and all that stuff.
We need to learn how to communicate better with pain in every aspect. A lot of the time, we get the message confused!
They Are Often Connected
Much of the time, the affects of anxiety, worry, fear and other issues in our minds will surface in our body or may cause a physical reaction or pain.
This is where we need to learn about ourselves – the deep, dark things that we ignore or are not sure what they are or how to deal with them.
We really need to start with self-acceptance, allowing the pain to show us why we become emotionally hurt, anxious, fearful, worried or whatever our problem may be.
Then we take the trigger that caused this reaction, process it in a healthy way with forgiveness, love and “letting our thoughts go” by either writing them or sharing them with a trusted person or a counsellor.
Writing is a wonderful, free way to let your thoughts go instead of bearing the weight of them in your mind and body.
This is what I believe: anxiety is unprocessed thoughts, feelings and emotions.
When they are processed properly, we feel the effects dissipate from our body, and then the unhealthy thought processes unravel from our minds and our thinking.
Something To Listen To, Not Be Afraid Of
The most unfortunate part about it is that if I don’t learn what pain is teaching me, it will not stop teaching me the lesson. It’s a great teacher because it won’t desist or cease until I learn.
I’ve learned that pain is not something to be afraid of, and not something to be excited about, but something to welcome that will make us strong. But only when we allow it to.
Jesus said that in this world we will have trials and tribulations (also known as PAIN), but to take heart because He has overcome the world.
It’s Him who gives the strength to go through whatever pain we may face, and to become better after. Philippians 4:13 is a Bible verse that really helps me.
So it’s not pain, but fear who is the true enemy.
I would rather go through pain and come out better than live in lingering and likely irrational fear which only makes me worse off.
Pain is the great teacher, and fear is the great enemy. Fear is more dangerous than pain.
We need to receive the message that pain speaks and not shove it away; and we need to shove away fear and not receive its message! If we don’t do this, we’re living in a disconnect.
While fear is a pretty automatic reaction, fear is something that we are actually supposed to overcome and not allow it to overcome us. Pain should not trigger us to be afraid, but rather to ask, “what do I need to do about this?”
The Power Of Positive Thinking Doesn’t Always Work…
The truth is, positive thinking will always have positive effects. I don’t deny that.
But I believe that even though many teachers, preachers, gurus or whatever will say that you can simply “positive think” your way out of any problem or situation that arises, and this will change your outlook and magically make everything get better. This is a gross injustice.
This approach teaches us to ignore our teacher: pain.
I went through 3 years of panic disorder, I understand what it is to go through at least some sort of emotional and mental discomfort.
The power of positive thinking is best as the end point, not as the only starting point. We need to allow pain to tell us who we are and what we need to fix, fix it, and then emerge better, stronger, and more healed than we were before.
This is almost always what happens when we deal with pain in the proper way, we do come out stronger and better than before, like the adages say.
And we can practice positive thinking always – this is truly a wonderful thing – but it’s not the best starting point as healing for our emotional pain or trauma. Positive thinking does not help us diagnose.
Pain is not always something that we have to “just deal with” and we’re stuck with. Much of the time, if we could simply see pain as a teacher who is communicating something to us, we will understand what needs to be fixed, fix it and come out stronger!
It’s a beautiful process, and all healthy people go through pain.
I hope this article helped you and gave you keys for getting through pain and that you can become a better version of you! I would love to hear any feedback you have in the comments section below, please feel free to share any thoughts you have. Here’s to our journey to become more healthy, whole people.
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