Benefits of Pain

I hate pain. Hell, not many people do. I mean, I have a few friends who like to feel pain but we won’t go there. Not this post.

So – back to the point. Most people avoid pain. If you burn your hand on the stove, it hurts like hell. The benefit? You learn to be careful when you are using one. You learn not to touch the burners. Especially when there are flames shooting out over the tops of them, or in case of electric stoves, the burners are red. The pain is a lesson. It lets you know something isn’t good for you. Something, as in, burnt flesh.

So what does emotional pain teach us? Basically the same thing. When you are in a relationship with someone and they hurt you, you feel pain. It lets you know something is not ok. Maybe the something is in how they treat you. Maybe it’s the fact there is an old wound within yourself and it still needs treating.

Lately, in certain circumstances, I started feeling pain. It scared me. I agonized over it. I obsessed on it. And then it dawned on me. The pain is an indicator that something isn’t right. When I stopped and looked at what was going on I realized I was in a situation I wasn’t ready to be in. I also realized a certain person wasn’t always thinking with my best interests at heart. Was it that person or me? I had to really dig deep and look at why I allowed myself to go there with this person and what it said about me that I kept flinching emotionally after our conversations.

Understanding that emotional pain is an indicator of what is safe and appropriate for us can take the fear of pain away. Instead of obsessing, worrying and becoming anxious about getting hurt again, we can realize it’s only the yellow light for our souls telling us to be cautious and slow down or avoid a situation altogether.

Pain also shows us when we need to rest. If we listen to the pain in our lives, it speeds up the healing process. Because if  we don’t feel pain and keep digging around in our wounds, we’ll never heal. But if, when we feel pain, we take necessary precautions, use the right medicine and bandage it up, healing can occur.