Yesterday was painful. Without going into detail, there has been a lot going on in my life. There are challenges that call for change in an old, broken system. There are emails that have a ton of information but not the details necessary to get a job adequately finished. To top it off, one of my parents and several of my friends are going through health crises. Yes there has been a lot going on and much of it has been painful.
Our society tends to encourage us to numb the pain. They implore us to take this, or try that. It may work for a time or two, but only leaves a person a zombie that demands more of the “medicine.” It causes addiction, avoidance, and makes a person care less about themselves, their loved ones and the world around us.
There are people going through chronic pain, and I am not telling anyone in constant pain to just deal with it. What I am saying is that all of us face pain in one form or another on most days. How do we make the best of it?
- Acknowledge pain instead of pretending it doesn’t exist
- Allow yourself to grieve when the pain is a loss
- If the pain is a situation, ask yourself what you can learn from it
- If the pain is because of growth, ask yourself if this is natural and if it needs to be endured
- If it is a slow pain of an ancient system, ask yourself what needs to change. What does this make possible?
- If the pain is from a toxic situation or relationship, get help to determine if you need to leave it
Some pain is inevitable. We live in a broken world filled with broken people. Sure, we all need medicine to ease the pain once in a while. But consider if it is something to learn from, grieve or leave instead of denying or numbing the pain.
And if it is a medicine ball in a gym class, perhaps the best thing to do is let the pain producer pass you by instead of catching it.
