Masking Pain In Life

This is a discussion that I think we all need to have in this world.  Pain is a big topic and the addiction to pain killers is growing at astonishing rates with little to show for its existence.

I've dealt with so much pain in my life; emotional, physical and chronic.  It has not been easy at times, but I've learned some shortcuts through it that help me greatly.

Often pain takes us into a moment of not feeling and not wanting to feel.  It takes us into self-protection.  It brings out the best numbing skills we have.

We try to avoid it and do just about anything we can to act as if it doesn't exist.  We try to use beliefs in all kinds of thoughts and philosophies and religions to make it appear that pain will disappear or has vanished.

Pain is there for a reason...

Pain is there for a reason.  It is a messenger to our body that something is not right or that something needs our attention.  Pain is the wake up call if we've avoided the earlier messages from our body and most people never hear those messages.  We are too asleep to hear the trains go by.

Pain medication and methods often mask the pain.  They make it seem as if it is not there.  While these medications and treatments may make us believe that the pain is gone or reduced, it is an illusion.  It may help us temporarily, but if we're not careful, the brain quickly embraces anything that reduces or takes the pain away.   Most of the time, we're not strong enough to counteract that and this is evidenced by the amount of prescriptions that are being consumed in our world.

It's a never-ending cycle...

Sometimes we have to do what we need to do in order to reduce the pain so we can catch our breath.  However, if you don't watch out, that's like a never-ending cycle that just reinforces an outside substance rather than embracing the healing power you have inside of you.

When we are young and we fall down or something happens, our parent is generally there for us to help us feel better.  However, the hidden message being taught is that we need someone else (or something else) to take our pain away and to make us better.  Yes, it might be innocent, but without the right tools, it enforces that part of the brain that looks to outside forces and diminishes the part of our brain that looks within.  It begins the process of setting ourselves up later for a life where pain engulfs our life, especially if we're not able to advance and learn.

I know pain is a much more complex entity than it may appear to anyone reading this.  Pain is insidious with how it gets us to respond.  It is crafty and cunning.  It is smarter than most of us and in fact, most research struggles to fully understand how pain works.  Researchers know parts of it, but they have not fully figured this one out.

Yet, I didn't think I could...

In my own life, I have seen times where I could take on the pain and yet, I didn't think I could.  I have been confronted with horrible physical realities and while feeling like I was powerless, I have found a power within me to heal and conquer.  The things that most would tell me are impossible to change are the things that I have began to understand that I could.

Believe me, it takes a heck of a lot to do what I am suggesting here.  It is not easy, but I know that deep down within me, there is a way out.  There is more than we currently know and understand today.  It is embracing the power we hold within, while not numbing and disconnecting in life that gives us much more than we can see.

Masking pain is one way of dealing with pain.  We all know how to do that, but as I'm seeing in this world, masking is not working.  The pain is still there.  People are still struggling to deal with pain.  So, our ways of masking pain are failing us.

Isn't it time that we begin to look outside the box in treating pain?  For if we continue to only see the tree, rather than the forest in front of us, we may likely miss the discoveries that can propel humanity into a new future.  Masking and numbing the pain will not get us where we need to go.

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2016 by Don Shetterly

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