PAIN

                                  

“It was as if something really sharp was piercing through my body, gradually awakening every inch and every fragment in me that had laid unconscious for so long. How could they call it unsafe? For all I know it was the only thing that had given my soul the reason to face my own reality and fight back for myself– 
ZARIYAAA”

As Biology might put it “Pain is described as an unpleasant and emotional experience that is associated with actual or potential tissue damage.” But, little did we all know that a mere 4 letter word barely covering even one fourth of a line could cram its way into our lives and make it a living home.

Pain for all of us has had different reactions with a consistent meaning attached to it, which was taught to us while growing up. Where childhood pain was more about scrapped knees and elbows, which was easy to respond. It somehow turned into Anguish during adolescence, which was soon followed by isolation during adulthood and maladjustment in the later stages of our lives. We were somehow always taught that pain is evil and how we should go up to great lengths to avoid it even if it meant to completely numb ourselves or to simply deny our feelings and not speak about them as it maybe considered as a huge sign of weakness.

An emotional pain is as strong as a physical pain that might be experienced due to a damaged tissue or a bone. An emotional pain often leads to shattering pieces of our lives, damaging our relationships and disrupting our identities. Not to forget about the other painful emotions that it triggers that house within us and gradually start rotting us.

THE OTHER SIDE OF PAIN

We often refuse to see how pain carries a huge role in being an eye opener for us in terms of our own reality and those of people around us.

Pain is what wakes us up from the constant state of comfortable numbness we have been in.

Pain in so many ways gives us the strength that helps us in fighting and building compassion for the person standing in front of the mirror pleading to be rescued.

Pain is what encourages us to be fearless by making us feel what we are afraid to feel.

Pain is what leads us to the path of acceptance of hardships of life and to flourish at every possible step we take to deal with them. It is what differentiates us from the non-living aspect of life, which gives us all the more reasons to be more accepting of this emotion.

OBSERVE AND VALIDATE.

Observing the painful emotion you’re going through and avoiding harsh judgment of self promotes better understanding and tolerance of this emotion.

Validation of a thought that instigates a painful emotion is another step that leads to acceptance of this emotion, which promotes self- empowerment, embracing a painful emotion is the key to nurturing problem solving behavior.

Pain is hurtful, yet it is what really gives us the courage to bare our vulnerabilities and to be seen as who we truly are under that thick layer of skin.