We go to such lengths to avoid pain. We ignore our work and open netflix to avoid the pain we’d experience in doing our work (actually using our brain cells and energy you know), picking up 2 more bags than you can while helping your mum with grocery to avoid an extra round (the pain of walking a little extra) and sometimes we don’t confront the person we have to talk to (pain of hurting someone or not hearing what we want to).
How peaceful would it be to live a pain free life, isn’t it? We would never have to worry about being hurt – both physically and mentally. But as you may know already, things aren’t as simple as they seem.
It would be alright to live a pain free life if it weren’t for one reason
The benefits of experiencing pain are necessary for our survival. Pain alerts us that something is wrong and we need to attend to it promptly or else risk further injury. If a person has his leg under a heavy rock, the pain tells him to get the leg out, otherwise irreparable harm to the leg may be caused. Pain tells us that we need to fix something that is not right – something that can harm us if not attended to.
Pain also helps us to learn. If something gives you pain, your mind will make sure to remember it. Painful experiences help us learn what not to do in the future; pain is a form of protection from unpleasant memories or harm.
And that is the very reason that pain is unpleasant. If it were pleasant, your mind would either not remember it, or worse, tend to go towards it. Pain is unpleasant because it works to protect us and keep us safe.
Moreover, what we don’t stop to think about is that pain makes us better in a way. Pain pushes our limits and helps us grow stronger, it teaches us how to deal with certain things and make adjustments so the next time won’t be as painful or difficult.
If you’ve found yourself feeling overwhelmed by life’s challenges lately, take some time for self-reflection; what lessons have you learned about who you are? How do those insights help shape your future decisions going forward? Or maybe they teach you something new about yourself every day. Take some time to figure out what’s causing the pain. What is it pointing towards? How can you ease the pain?
Either way, try not to avoid the uncomfortable moments of life when they come up again – instead welcome them like old friends and see if there’s anything more important than learning from these experiences.
pain=gain
That’s one way to put it
Well said… learning from failure is hard but important… any experience never goes waste unless we decided to ignore…u r rocking always 🙂
Very rightly said. And thank you!