You heard of the phrase “Pain is weakness leaving the body.”?
Yeah…I don’t buy that. You probably see that on a gym wall or on someone’s t-shirt.
I can see why people like the phrase but we got to have the proper understanding of pain. What exactly does pain mean to us?
Is pain really weakness leaving the body? No, it's a mantra for people to push harder past their normal limits. That's totally fine. I just want to take this chance to explain the nature of pain.
When we feel pain, do we dodge it?
Do we push through it?
Do we suck it up and move forward?
Do we sit around and wished it never happened?
Let’s discuss the misunderstandings we have about pain.
#1 - We should always put past pain.
As human beings, we are actually tougher than we think. We have a lot more ability to grow after the initial pain. As a matter of fact, we have to move past the initial pain for real growth. We have to go past the limit to break down our original foundations and rebuilding them.
I’m speaking for both physical and mental.
Physical is when you are rebuilding your muscles but you have to tear them a little bit for them to recover stronger next time.
Mental is when you reach beyond your mental boundary, then expanding your mental endurance as a result.
However, the point here that I want to make is understanding that pushing through pain isn’t bad, but we want to understand that pain signals the limit.
Breaking the limit isn't good ALL the time.
The only way for us to grow is to go past our perceived limit so we can become more than what we were like before. Yet, understand that not all limits are meant to be pushed through all the time.
You must understand that sometimes pushing too far for any pain will result in irreversible damage. You want to push enough to grow but not pushing beyond the damage point.
#2 - Pain is meant to stop us from growing.
When we first feel pain, our natural instincts are to stop. It is supposed to be like that, but it’s not meant to say run away at the first sign of pain.
Pain is an indicator of danger and limit, but we don’t want to be afraid of it. We want to be able to face it and evaluate what this pain means.
Is the pain hurting us?
What is the source of this pain and how can I recover from it?
Don’t spend your life trying to run away from a pain, because most of our maturities and growth can only come from pain.
#3 - Pain is meant to be left alone.
Sometimes this is true because we learned that if we have physical cuts, it will heal by itself. However, for emotional cuts, it might not be all that easy.
A lot of times for emotional wounds, the pain that is left alone actually works against you. While you are isolating yourself to heal, your inner critic cuts down your self-esteem. It makes you distrust yourself. It makes you hate yourself.
This only gets worse with time. It doesn’t heal by itself. It wants to withdraw and diminish your own existence. This type of pain isn’t meant to be left alone. You want to work through the pain and face it so it doesn’t ruin your life even more.
First Step -
What’s one thing you want to do differently this week?
- Augustus
Losing Interests, Losing Relationships [Free PDF]
- Understanding the 5 CAUSES for an emotional wall between you and everyone else.