How do you experience pain? Do you experience more pain physically or mentally? What is your relationship with pain? Do you seek out pain? Do you hurt yourself—consciously or unconsciously, mentally or physically? Do you think that pain can be a good thing? Do you think that we have control over the pain that we feel? Do you use pain to your advantage— in relationship with other people and with yourself? Do you think we can lessen our pain with our mindset? Do you think pain is a choice?
I grew up catching glimpses of my mother in physical and deep spiritual pain. She has fibromyalgia, a condition that many doctors know nothing about but is clearly the physical manifestation of emotional pain in the body (showing up as inflammation, distorted fascia, trigger points, headaches, and of course the mental effects that any chronic pain bring, lingering depression and a dysregulated nervous system.
Interestingly, doctors used to assume (and some still think) that fibromyalgia is hereditary and mainly effects women, as it often showed up in mother/daughter pairs. I have two thoughts on why this condition is seen mostly in women. One, women are taught from a young age throughout most cultures to ingest their emotions and bury th…
I feel I experience both mental and physical pain, but I heard they can be connected to one another. I think this is true because I have had the same chronic GI issue that causes physical pain for 4 years. Losing my mom has had the greatest effect on my life and it has been an isolating experience. Most people cannot relate because they lost a parent when they were younger or it isn't supposed to happen until later in life, but I also do not want them to empathize. I feel a constant void that cannot be filled by people or alcohol, and I learned that the hard way. I struggle navigating my young adult life, but I am…
Pain is constant, ebbs and flows. It could be physical one day and then emotional the next. It can be ethereal or it can be extreme. I think pain is a good thing but I think it can also be a bad thing. You have to adapt and also immerse yourself in it. People experience pain at different levels. We connect on people’s pain, we can make conversation.
I experience pain constantly-- sometimes physical, sometimes mental, sometimes I dont even realize it's there. I don't necessarily think it's always a bad thing. I think it's an indicator of sorts. It can tell you when your body is almost at its limit in that moment but that limit changes usually by adapting. It's the same with mental pain too. We think we've hit our limit but we're still here. The pain can indicate a need of rest, the need to change our approach to whatever it is we're pursuing, the need of a new perspective, that we are growing strong within and in who we are. Mentally I hurt myself unconsciously. There's a part of me that feels like…