Stop Numbing Your Pain
Feel Everything and Live
In today's "feel good" society it seems we are really losing base with the reason for struggle. We are taught that life is supposed to be easy and that pain is bad. Not all pain is bad, there is a reason for it.
Throughout my life I have tried to avoid pain, even though it was ever present. I have a history of injuries, no broken bones, no surgeries, but cuts, bruises, and burns. Emotional pain of losing people that were close to me. The girl I took to prom died in an automobile accident, my brother John died after being struck by a vehicle, my father and grandfather passed away within a few months of each other.
What I used to do was avoid it. I avoided the pain as much as I could. I didn't go to the teenage funeral, I held onto that pain for a long time. I would carry her picture in my wallet well into my adulthood. I finally made my peace with it a few years ago by finding her grave, leaving a gift, and that picture as well.
I would also avoid pain with alcohol. It works well, it is usually part of any good wake. It helps us cope, but if we lean on it too much we will use it for everything we feel. Eventually this stuff has to come out.
While I was cleaning my brother John's apartment with his twin brother Greg, I remember saying to him "I am starting to feel things, let's go have a beer." We did, and it was good, but I didn't realize what I was doing at the time.
Eventually when I sobered up for a stint, all of these blocked emotions came out at once. It was a very trying time for me, but one I needed to go through.
The point of all of this is, if we numb ourselves to the bad stuff, we don't get to feel any of the good stuff either. Fully embrace the pain you are in and take it for what it is. Do not self-identify with it, but do live in it. Feel all of it fully and by doing so you will get through it. I promise.
As always, thank you for your attention.
In today's "feel good" society it seems we are really losing base with the reason for struggle. We are taught that life is supposed to be easy and that pain is bad. Not all pain is bad, there is a reason for it.
Throughout my life I have tried to avoid pain, even though it was ever present. I have a history of injuries, no broken bones, no surgeries, but cuts, bruises, and burns. Emotional pain of losing people that were close to me. The girl I took to prom died in an automobile accident, my brother John died after being struck by a vehicle, my father and grandfather passed away within a few months of each other.
What I used to do was avoid it. I avoided the pain as much as I could. I didn't go to the teenage funeral, I held onto that pain for a long time. I would carry her picture in my wallet well into my adulthood. I finally made my peace with it a few years ago by finding her grave, leaving a gift, and that picture as well.
I would also avoid pain with alcohol. It works well, it is usually part of any good wake. It helps us cope, but if we lean on it too much we will use it for everything we feel. Eventually this stuff has to come out.
While I was cleaning my brother John's apartment with his twin brother Greg, I remember saying to him "I am starting to feel things, let's go have a beer." We did, and it was good, but I didn't realize what I was doing at the time.
Eventually when I sobered up for a stint, all of these blocked emotions came out at once. It was a very trying time for me, but one I needed to go through.
The point of all of this is, if we numb ourselves to the bad stuff, we don't get to feel any of the good stuff either. Fully embrace the pain you are in and take it for what it is. Do not self-identify with it, but do live in it. Feel all of it fully and by doing so you will get through it. I promise.
As always, thank you for your attention.
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