“Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding.”
Khalil Gibran
“The last three or four reps is what makes the muscle grow. This area of pain divides the champion from someone else who is not a champion. That’s what most people lack, having the guts to go on and just say they’ll go through the pain no matter what happens.”
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Wow!
Interesting that two very different people, Khalil Gibran and Arnold Schwartzenegger, in their own way come to the same understanding of a simple everyday thing called pain!
most of us feel two different types of pain. The first type is physical – you have an injury and your body feels pain. The second type is emotional pain – a harsh word, a relationship break up, anything that happens that is not physical where the response is emotional pain.
It is interesting to observe that once a person has been through and overcome a certain amount of both of there types of pain, they seem to be stronger, wiser and better off for the experience.
What is it within each one of us that fortifies us in the face of pain, allows us to feel the depths of pain that we never thought imaginable and then pushes us through and out the other side?
It seems as if this painful tempering process isn’t only part of our humanness, but that it is an essential part in our emotional any physical learning and maturing process.
Identify the source of your pain. If it is physical, deal with it appropriately. Never forget that pain is the body’s way of drawing your attention to any part of the body that is injured or not functioning at its best.
If you are experiencing emotional pain, identify the emotion, then look deeper within yourself to the cause of that emotion. Find out what caused the disharmony. What were you expecting the outcome to be, and how does that outcome differ from what you are now experiencing?
As best as you can, observe the situation as a learning experience and decide how you can upgrade and update your expectations to bring about a more harmonious result the next time.
It is a very good idea to write this all down. Writing serves to lessen our emotional response, and forces us to order our thoughts. Writing effectively stops the emotional roller-coaster in its tracks and allows us to observe for the moment.
Have courage, embrace your pain, understand it and allow yourself to heal stronger and wiser.