Originally posted on Facebook HERE
I’ve been thinking a lot about pain lately. Pain comes in many forms, but at some point we all have to deal with it in some fashion. There’s “workout” pain – which is the “no pain, no gain” type of pain. The “pain is weakness leaving the body” pain. I kinda love that pain – the pain that says “I’m moving forward”… we need that pain if we’re going to make gains. But then I think back to the pain I felt back when I was using. Deep, emotional pain. The pain we feel when we don’t love ourselves, when our lives are in chaos, and we’re questioning everything, including our will to live. That’s not a pain I’d wish on anyone. But… all pain, in every form, is crying out for us to pay attention. Something is going on here, and when it comes to emotional distress, well… that’s never easy to deal with. Losing a loved one can create some real emotional pain. Losing our way in life. The end of a relationship. We have so much power to decide how we want to process these moments, but when it’s actually going on it sure doesn’t seem like it. I used drugs and alcohol for fifteen years before I decided I had enough and could no longer live that way. Did the emotional pain go away the instant I stopped drinking?… no! It’s a daily process. Every now and then I’ll remember some stupid, horrible thing I did when I was drunk and I’ll think “I’m such an asshole”… those memories never seem to totally fade away. If we get obsessed with the things we hate about ourselves, it will affect everything. Pulling out of the spiral of self-hatred isn’t easy, either. It’s day by day, one step at a time… and obsessive/compulsive people usually want everything NOW. But life comes in waves. Pain shows up and needs to be dealt with throughout the entire time we’re here. Physical pain is another thing entirely. As we age, we usually just kind of get used to having things hurt I guess. I’ve had some issues with my shoulders and hip areas for years now, and a pulled hamstring for several months as well. I’ve had issues with tendinitis over the years, too. We’ve probably all had to see a dentist at some point for pain in our teeth, right?… we all deal with physical pain differently. Some people seem to be able to just blow it off, no matter how bad it is, and live their lives without letting it bother them so much. Others let it stop them from doing things, often things they love. It depends on what we’re dealing with, how bad the pain is, what type of pain, etc… a positive mindset can’t always get you through physical pain. But pain can often lead to gain, even when it’s not the pain we feel from working out. The emotional pain I felt when I hit bottom set me up for everything that followed. I needed that pain to give me the motivation to make changes in my life. It was enough pain to keep me sober today, and for what I expect will be the rest of my life, too. When I feel physical pain, like my shoulders, hip, hamstring – I try to look at all the ways I can deal with it. How can I use this to my advantage? How can I become healthier? Pain can be a motivating force for greatness if we see it that way. Certainly not always, of course. Chronic pain can really be a tough thing to deal with, and to try to frame in any “positive” fashion. But our mindsets so often create our realities, right? Whenever possible, use pain as motivation for change. Positive change. What’s the other choice?… to wallow in it?… I’ve done both. I suspect we all have. These days, I try to look for a way out that serves me in some way. It’s not always easy to find, and it can’t always be found, but to me it’s better than the alternative…
