What is Pain?

[Neiru2012]

Pain gets a bad rap because most people experience it as feeling “bad.” But have we stopped and really thought about the purpose of Pain? We all know that processing pain is a valuable catalyst for growth… But what value does pain have in and of itself?

I gotta admit I rarely feel what most people call “pain” anymore. I’m a big believer in “whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger,” and due to years of Pavlovian-like associations where I’ve grown stronger from my pain, I equate it with power (or maybe the immediate precursor to strength/power). But that still defines pain in relation to some other goal.

So, again, what is Pain?

There’s two kinds of pain: acceptance of pain, and denial of pain (ie: blameshifting).

When we accept and own our pain, it does some wonderous things. At first, it is an acknowledgement of vulnerability and/or sensitivity. And then, it blows open the heart more profoundly than anything else I’ve experienced. It shatters our walls/defenses and allows us to truly feel and be. It operates outside any rigid filters we build up for ourselves, as evident by the so-called “dark night of the soul.” The dark night of the soul allows us to shake off worn-out concepts and patterns that we never would have if we stayed in our comfort zone. But I can’t stress enough how much it totally and completely opens the heart. It also effortlessly brings us into the present moment. It is the precursor of compassion as well as strength.

And what is denial of pain? I’ll be frank: a closed heart can not feel pain! By denying our ownership of pain it has nowhere to go except to be directed outwards, often manifesting as blame, anger, or hatred. When pain is the cause for these emotions (since they can arise for many other reasons), the people expressing them do not acknowledge/realize that they’re hurting. Their heart is closed to themselves and they shift the responsibility to others.

So what is pain to you?

[Will]

…Love hurts…by Incubus…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_3pq0XpUsc

[Will]

…Neiru says…

“whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger,”

…this was something my mother used to always tell me…

…I’m not dead yet !…

…and I’ve got strength in spades !…

…but what of the down side of pain ?…
…as an empath it REALLY hurts me to see a child abused and in pain….
…where is the gain there ?…from the lesson of what is not good ?…
…( there I go with jugdment terms )…

[Neiru2012]

@Will wrote:

…but what of the down side of pain ?…

There is a subjective downside to every emotion, even love.
@Will wrote:

…as an empath it REALLY hurts me to see a child abused and in pain….
…where is the gain there ?…from the lesson of what is not good ?…

What you’re describing is an example of what I mean by pain opening the heart, in this case to the child in compassion. I would say that the value is in the experience, and perceptions of what is “gained” (or “lost”) is up to you. In this case pain can be a motivator to do something for the child. Or you can use your experience to show the child how to use their pain, or how to transform it into strength or compassion. One is never too young to learn these skills.

[Bigfeet E]

Pain is the sensor of the Self reminding the ego it is lacking balanced energy.
The ego is feeling the pain, is living (and creating) the pain.
Physical pain however is the sensor of the body detecting an unbalance within its physical system.

When you witness a child getting abused , empathy gets you to feel its pain, fear, and all that comes with it.
You recognise the unfairness of the situation and you probably step in and try to balance out the situation.
Offcourse when a child is being disciplinned however it also can come of as abusiveness.
So you need to really establish that it is abuse, not just discipline.
The relatonship between abuser and they who are being abused has a life & reason of its own.
Their is a lesson for both party’s involved.They both need the realisation of the energy of the situation in order to find and define of what is true.
So if you want to step in, then be sure you step in from the point of fairness & balance…
Otherwise you will get tangled up in the same misguided emotions.

[Alusa]

I agree with Neiru, owning your pain can be very empowering. People tend to create most of their pain by not owning it. I find often times it opens you up to the best lessons. You can make your own pain by avoidance, by being too stubborn to learn, when pain finally wears you down it can open you up to some of the most valuable experiences of your life. When you stop running for a minute and ask “why am I hurting?” think about it, and act on it, you can learn a lot.

[Neiru2012]

@Bigfeet E wrote:

Pain is the sensor of the Self reminding the ego it is lacking balanced energy.
The ego is feeling the pain, is living (and creating) the pain.
Physical pain however is the sensor of the body detecting an unbalance within its physical system.

It is interesting that you bring up physical pain. I see physical phenomenon as direcly paralleling non-physical phenomenon, and so it make sense for me to look at the meaning of physical pain to understand non-physical pain. Physical pain does exist to make you pay attention to the body and alert it to danger. Likewise, non-physical pain alerts you to things about yourself that you need to examine. The feeling of pain has always been very disarming and transformative for me, so I prefer to think of it as the agent that brings you into balance and not a symptom of imbalance.

[Bigfeet E]

@Neiru2012 wrote:

The feeling of pain has always been very disarming and transformative for me, so I prefer to think of it as the agent that brings you into balance and not a symptom of imbalance.

I see where you getting at ,Neiru 🙂
Ofcourse its al interconnected, physical & non-physical.Mentally we seperate the things for understanding but we need to look at the whole picture eventually also.
I was bringing the physical up to point out painsources coming from outside, for example when you bump your head or something, the source of pain is the bumping, but the way you came to bump lies in the uncarefullness off the surroundings wich brings us back to our attention.The attention of balance for our body versus the surroundings was not fully, therefor you didn’t notice the thing you bumped your head against.
I agree when you say it is an alertsystem, but the pain itself did not heal you. It made you aware of the imbalance so it inspired & moved you to find back the balance. To me balance is the key in all things. When you focus on the pain, it wil enhance the pain. When the attention go’s to the balancesystem you can find the root of the problem. Energy flows to where attention goes. As it is for physical or non-physical and for the connection of all your ‘body’s’ as one.

[Author]

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