Lessons of Pain

Pain has a function in our lives. Physically, it would send a message to our bodies, making us to act. Yet, sometimes, we learn to ignore the signals due to many reasons. "It is temporary, it will soon go away." "I have things to do and acknowledgement of the existence of pain would mean that I have to do something about it." "There are other more important things that I needed to do, this pain is an inconvenience."

I had been experiencing right side pain since the beginning of this year. As the pain is not as regular, and tolerable, I choose to ignore.

• Pain is a guide, not an enemy. Follow it.
• Pain tells you something, you do not tell the pain. Listen to it.
• Rationalizing your pain will distort your response to it. Face it.
• Fearing pain, fighting it, avoiding it, or ignoring it only increases it. Flow with it.
• The best way to respond to pain is simply to allow your self to feel deeply and o respond to those feelings --- and in that way, becomes self-limiting. Take time for it.

When we re-learn to face pain, we discover choices we didn't know we had. If we deny it, emotional confusion can quickly become utter anarchy; if we learn to be receptive, it becomes absolute potential.

What can you expect to gain from writing your way into and through your pain? A better handle on your problems, sudden awareness of options, and a profound satisfaction in knowing that the impulse toward toward healing comes fom within yourself.

It helps you discover that feelings are natural --- all feelings, not just the "good" ones ~ and that acknowledging them is a healing act. Risking is far superior to avoiding; you cannot learn any other way. Giving voice to patterns of feelings is a way of triggering change. Lives are not fixed but a flow of possibilities and your own words, given form, empower you.

No one is immune to pain, but I know many who let pain fester and take charge of their lives. i know from my own experience that it is possible to discharge the pain and become recharged. Discovering your own meanings n your own words transforms potentially self-destructive feelings into creative acts, lets you become a do-er, instead of a passive victim. Your pain becomes manageable, explorable, and transformable into unexpected patterns of meaning.

The pain is an aversion. The healing magic is attention. Properly attended to, the pain can answer our most crucial questions, even those we did not consciously frame. The only way out of our suffering is through it. Conflict, pain, tension, fear, paradox --- these are breakthroughs trying to happen. Once we confront them, we realize that the reward is worth the scariness of the unanesthetized life. The release of pain and the resolution of conflict make the next crisis easier to confront.