Further Thoughts on Pain As A Source of Energy for Growth
What Doesn't Kill You...
This saying and its countless vague permutations are spouted at will when the prospect of a challenging situation appears, but, the actual reasoning behind the saying is always foggy.
I believe the previous issue and the following thoughts can help make the reason clearer.
The Hand That Touches The Stove
Human beings know their world through their senses.
Human beings are mind, heart and body.
When a parent cautions their child against touching a hot element on the stove, the child has a mental understanding of the idea that touching the hot stove will cause pain, and, an emotional understanding that Mommy or Daddy are saying this out of love.
Why does the child still touch the hot element?
To confirm with all their senses that the reality purported by their parents is indeed real.
The human organism is a subtle thing with countless shades of awareness and perception.
The perception of reality is a combination of countless minutiae.
If the child feels inclined to touch the stove, I believe, they should.
The pain will cause the child to pull their hand away immediately and confirm for them in the deepest recesses of their cellular awareness the truth that their parents were trying to convey to them in a way that mere words and gestures never could.
It is the subtlety of knowing a thing, in a way beyond the abstract constructs of the mind, to know a thing with the raw, carnal, immediacy of the physical.
Such is the power of pain. It is not something to be feared. It is integral to the Human Experience, an element to be understood and cultivated as a part of Healthy Human Development.
Athletes
All Athletes understand the role of pain in their lives.
It is quite simply a fundamental aspect of their existence.
Athletes understand that pain is an experience they must come to understand and arrive at a personal reckoning with.
Pain is indeed difficult.
Pain is indeed challenging.
But the presence of pain and its surmounting is the essence of Athletic achievement, leading to the incomparable sensation of : growth.
“Growth and Pain are Inseparably Entwined.”
Weight Training
Some pain is an indication of growth.
Great pain is an indication of damage.
Gaining muscle weight training is a process of experience and developing an awareness and understanding of “Good” pain versus “Bad” pain.
In weight training, pain is a tool, one intrinsically integrated with the muscle building experience.
It is not a monster to be avoided, it is a companion to be understood and a rapport built with.
Pain as Injury
When an animal is injured, it seeks a place near water, which is safe, where it can rest, drink water and allow its body time to heal.
Time is the central motif of recovery from injury.
When time is allowed to heal an injury, the animal (or person) afterwards is made stronger and wiser.
Human Nature
It is, once again, a question of Human Nature.
Human Beings are sensitive, empathetic creatures and we do not like to see suffering, including the suffering of ourselves.
When pain touches us directly, we instantly become galvanized to do something to alleviate it.
That is how pain works.
Pain is a motivator.
It is a basic, instinctive reaction to undesirable stimulus exposed to the human organism in some fashion.
The basic message of pain is :
"DANGER. Human Organism being damaged or compromised in some fashion. Seek out a strategy for the alleviation of pain, lest it do permanent damage.”
With this understanding in mind, when a person engages in a painful experience the entirety of the person becomes filled with an energy to reach reconciliation. Guiding the energy of that reconciliation with purpose (the knowledge and reason why the experience was sought) is the key to rapid recovery and enabling one to permit the experiencing of a painful experience in the first place.
A Sure Thing?
"The only constant in existence, is that nothing will stay constant."
Double-Negatives.
Infinite Permutations of Paradox.
Such is existence.
Nothing is possible, and, Anything is possible.
Emotional Pain can destroy a person, and, Emotional Pain can be turned into a source of Fuel for Action.
How?
Because the Emotional Pain was brought about in the pursuit of a personal goal, a personal quest, a personal mantra, and thus, the Emotional Pain is intimately intertwined with the desired goal, with the wished for aim.
As such, the Emotional Pain was a direct result of the pursuit of one's desired aim, and, the mind, the body, the personal essence that is you, is aware of this fact, and understands that the Pain you are suffering was experienced as a consequence of pursuing the goal.
"You nobly sacrificed in a heroic attempt to achieve something with your life. The You deep inside is not lost to this fact and becomes doubly resolved to see your wished for goal become a reality."
“The pain was experienced in the pursuit of an end to which one was deeply dedicated and thus, the pain is a tactile, tangible, visceral affirmation of one's desire to successfully experience something, and thus is an affirmation, rather than a condemnation.”
Chicks Dig It
Chris Cagle understands the indivisible value of pain as a catalyst for growth in the Human Experience.
The Greatest Pain of the Human Experience
"Just go up and talk to her/him."
Have you ever had a friend give you this advice, when you expressed interest in an attractive member of the opposite sex?
Have you ever wondered WHY your friend gave you such advice when you were certain you were going to be rejected.
Have you ever wished your friend hadn't offered their advice in the first place because now your awareness has been opened up to a possibility it had heretofore not considered, and the lack of trying the possibility cuts you to the quick and causes you to feel ashamed and pathetic.
Probably your friend never fully fleshed out their reasoning behind giving you the advice.
They most certainly have your best interests in mind though. : )
Human beings like to see their fellow human beings happy (when they themselves are happy as well of course. everyone should be happy after all.).
Your friend's instincts tell them that you taking a chance and possibly, perhaps very likely, getting hurt will still result in a benefit, in growth, for you.
How is it possible that an experience which causes you pain, suffering, misery and humiliation can possibly be a good thing?
Because pain is a catalyst for change, a source of energy for growth.
If you make a successful connection, this is wonderful, but, if you do not, you still have benefited.
The Pain of Rejection hurts brutally, but it awakens a powerful cyclone of emotion and energy within you. That energy need only be guided.
As young children, before inhibitions are imposed on us, when an attempt at friendship is denied, we innocently ask, “Why don't you like me?” We still ought ask this question.
Perhaps it is our clothes. Perhaps it is our skin. Perhaps it is our breath. Perhaps it is our hair. Perhaps it isn't physical, perhaps it is the way we carry ourselves. Perhaps we present ourselves as timid, or too aggressive. Perhaps it is because we spilled a drink on them. , _ , ...
When we look into the eyes of the person with whom we wanted to connect and we hear from their mouth the reasons why they were not attracted to us, we can channel the powerful pain swirling within us and use it as energy to fuel change (after our heart stops bleeding of course : ' (
“Human Emotions are the Fuel of Human Actions.”
Days. Weeks. Months. Years later. When the pain has subsided and the mind is free to reason, you can understand the changes you can make, and you have the energy, the inertia, the momentum, to make them.
Or maybe you decide the object of your affection just totally sucked. >_>
Either way, you put yourself out there, and you have grown, that is the ultimate reason for experiencing pain.
Your friend's pretty bright. ; )
Pain as a Source of Energy :
Still More Thoughts
Seek out pain.
Why?
Because the experience is a form of energy.
This is guaranteed.
You sought out the painful experience with the desire that it would enhance you, with a specific goal in mind, and this is what you will receive eventually because of the pain, because the pain gives you energy, because the pain fuels you.
Don't shy away from an experience just because of the possibility that it will cause you pain.
Why?
Pain is a form of energy, use it to help you to grow, or more specifically, pain is a form of energy which causes one to grow.
Seek out pain, because if you seek it out with the specific idea in mind that even if the experience is painful it was worth it, you know, with absolute certainty, that it will help you to grow.
I particularly value this advice as it helps me to know why I should take risks, and go out of my way, and take a chance to experience painful emotions.
My life experiences have demonstrated to me that doing so plants seeds in me which blossom later.
What causes them to blossom?
A catalyst of some sort.
Having a purpose in life.
When you seek out a painful experience because you have a purpose, the experience becomes something edifying, even if it was painful.
Purpose is the guiding light that gives journeying its purpose and direction and with purpose in mind, painful experiences become filled with significance and become a certain, a guaranteed form of energy.
It is coming to understand pain, understanding that pain is not something to be run away from, it is not something to flee from, it is not something that is not destructive or ruining, it is a energy in a sharp, stinging form which cuts and heightens the awareness of a person.
Understanding that pain is a form of energy, not an enemy, and that understanding its nature can make it so that pain is an experience to be sought out, not avoided, enables one to understand pain is part of the steps that need to be taken for growth.
Hiding Ourselves
The reason we hide our true selves is because we are afraid we will be especially vulnerable when others will invariably hurt us.
If we are badly hurt, we do not expect anyone will stop to help us.
Human beings are naturally sensitive, loving creatures, when : they are healthy.
Humanity has still not reached the evolutionary state where Human beings are acting fully human, in tune with their true nature.
The time is coming very soon though when Humanity will begin to realize its potential.
Until that time, we should not hold ourselves back from experiences because of the potential they will cause us pain.
Rather we should actively pursue them because of the certain knowledge that the experience will most assuredly strengthen us and cause us to grow.
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