Beyond the Pain

Last post, I talked about the value in pain: letting you
know what’s awry.

But, pain can be a pain in the ass (literally) and get in the %$#@ way!

For the last 3 days I’ve been experiencing moderately severe pain. At least,
moderate compared to the Big MoFo pain I was used to experiencing.

In any case, it has been severe enough to seriously impact
my energy and creativity.

My normal first reaction is to try and search for cause. My
thinking is “if I can find the cause I
can take the just-right corrective action.”  Well, I did that. And, none of the usual
tricks – writing, poetry, dialogue, Freeze Frame – worked.

And, it’s like that sometimes. Sometimes the
answer is hidden. Sometimes, as much as you want to know why, it doesn’t make
sense to search for why. Instead, it makes sense to just do something.

So, I did.

I just gave up, gave in. How?

I took it easy. I had several naps. I went for a walk when it warmed up. I watched a comedy movie. I slept 9 hours.

And, I feel better.

You might ask, "How
can pain be my friend? It’s $%#@ ruining my life!"

At the risk of being
Polly Anna-ish, I believe you can learn something from your pain.

The original purpose of pain was to protect us. You touch the stove. You
get burned. You don’t do it again. This principle is so true that when I was an
HR Trainer we talked about employee discipline and the Hot Stove Rule.

If you suffer from Chronic Pain you know that rule doesn’t seem to fit. You
haven’t touched any stove, thank you very much. In fact you may be stymied as
to the cause of your pain.

I know that was true for
me when the crushing pain of Fibro onset. All I knew was I was in the grip of
this killing pain. And, no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t shake it and I
couldn’t figure out what the hell was causing it.

I studied it. I analyzed
it. I prayed. I bitched. I exercised. I slept. Nothing seemed to help – well,
not much or not for long.

Yet, in retrospect,
generalized as it was it was telling me something. I just had to locate the Rosetta
Stone so I could decipher the code.

Now, I’m not saying that
figuring this out is going to be easy. It takes time. It took me 4 bloody
years. And, there are parts I’m still trying to decipher.

But, it is doable. I’ll
look at some how to’s next post.

Let’s get back to the
point. The point being that your pain is trying to tell you something. In that
regard it is kind of like a friend — you know the one that’s a pain in the bum
and a bit of nag but you know they do care. That kind of friend.

Your body cares. It
hurts because something or some things are wrong.

Decipher the signal and
you can End the Pain.