PAIN: Life's Greatest Teacher.

OUCH!! That f*cking hurt!

Pain : We do everything in our power to avoid experiencing it. But what if I told you the whole point of living is to be open to the suffering to understand ourselves on a deeper level.

Pain is triggered by our nervous system, to alert us that something is out of balance, not right. This is not only physical pain, but also is emotional pain, which can be worse.

This past month I've experience a significant amount of physical and emotional pain. Yesterday I got hurt during a photoshoot. As I was climbing a tree, I jumped up and a rusty nail sliced my foot open, about 2.5 cm deep. I was rushed to the ER, where the doctors and nurses dug, poked, stretched, scrubbed the wound to find scraps of metal, and this was all with no painkillers or anesthetic. I was losing my mind. Having to bite down and breathe through the pain.

We tend to ask "Why is this happening to me?!", rather "Why is this happening for me?" My pain threshold is pretty high, but I had to cry and release the built up pain not only from this. I've been going through a lot of shifts recently, releasing guilt, resentment, and battling with my own internal wounds. Many nights of late night thinking, tossing and turning, had led me to a point of deep self reflection of what has come to my attention that needs to change. 

So I believe everything happens for a reason, meaning that there are no accidents. In order to regain our balance we need to find the root cause of the pain not just where the physical pain is coming from but how did it manifest. There is a lesson to why I got hurt, either it means to slow down or be more mindful. I've also been pushing myself too hard and being very in my masculine energy, which will put me out of balance of my feminine. 

Our pain is our greatest teacher, and suffering is an opportunity to evolve into your self more fully, to dig deeper to see what is behind the pain. Nature shows that with the growth of intelligence comes increased capacity for pain, and it is only with the highest degree of intelligence that suffering, reaches it's supreme point. 

When we move our perspective of pain being a bad thing to it becoming a compass on where we need to change, we can learn from this great teacher. So don't be afraid of pain; rather, accept the pain and embrace it. 

Here's the honest truth about Pain

1. You can't have Pleasure without Pain.

Pleasure does not exist without pain, they define each other. Both are temporary feelings. Remind yourself this is temporary. Pleasure and pain go hand in hand, so the more pleasure you seek the more pain you attract. You notice extreme athletes chase those adrenaline highs by surfing big waves or backflipping on motor bikes. Those athletes also have to deal with the risk of death and have dealt with painful injuries. 

2. Pain is Necessary for Growth.

Most of the time pain acts as a wake up call. Awakens us that something is wrong and needs to change. The more you bury it, the more infected your wounds become. The cure for pain is to lean into the pain. Feel it, grow through it. What hurts you blesses you. And the pain will leave once it has finished teaching you. Next time you are hurting ask yourself "What is it that I must learn?" Look at it as an opportunity to grow. 

3. Treating the Symptoms of Pain won't cure it.

To get rid of a tree, you need to remove it from the roots. The same with pain, you must address the root causes. A quick fix of a prescription pill, alcohol, distractions, and sex will just temporarily relieve our pain. To fully deal with the pain we must go deep within to see where it stems from and go into the darkest parts of ourselves. 

Embrace your pain, but do not sulk in it too long. It's meant to trigger change within us and with the act of change we can move past the pain. 

xo,

Courtney