Don't Numb the Pain, Feel It

"Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional."- Buddha 

In this world we experience everything through our senses in the form of feelings. So feeling pain & pleasure is an integral part of our lifetime on planet earth and really they are two sides of the same coin. Your best friend not replying to your Whatsapp the minute he/she reads it causes pain as well as getting dumped by the guy or girl you love causes pain too. Anything and everything can cause pain because of how we perceive and feel the situation. However, what we do with this pain is really our choice.

There are 3 ways people deal with pain-

• Suffering Because of Pain- This is where you play the victim. You think the whole world is plotting against you and that nothing ever goes your way. You are always in the fight or flight mode. You constantly stress, depress and anxiously worry about your pain or problem. Your problem becomes your life and causes a domino effect of further problems. 
• Numbing Pain- The most rapidly spreading disease in our world today is numbing pain. You do this by trying to ignore the pain through alcohol, substance, sugar binges or junk food binges or obsessive shopping, eating, sex etc. This will numb your pain temporarily and the relief from pain is very short-lived. When the effect of your numbing agent fades away, the pain comes back multiplied and intensified with other ingredients such as guilt, shame and anger.
• Feeling the Pain- This is where you own it. You acknowledge it. You give it the respect it wants from you. You see, any pain or any problem is an indicator that something needs to be addressed internally within yourself. Feeling the pain is dealing with it by asking yourself questions such as "Why am I experiencing this pain?" and "What can I do to make it better?" 

There are various ways to ride the waves of your pain and you could try any of the following-

1. Journaling- When you have crazy destructive thoughts bouncing off in your head, just transfer them onto paper. You are literally purging your pain or poison out. You will feel loads better and definitely calmer when you have penned your feelings out on paper. Try and define the pain, objectify it. Affirm that even though you 'have' the pain in this moment, the pain does not 'define you' or 'own you' or 'is you'.  Measure it and soon you will realise that it isn't as big as you thought in your head it would be.
2. Meditation- There are a million ways to meditate. Get on YouTube find a guided meditation and see how that pans out for you. 
3. EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) or Tapping- This is an amazing technique where you gently tap on the end points of meridians of your body and while tapping you say words like "Even though I am feeling 'this' pain, I deeply love and accept myself..." It is a known technique that can get rid of physical as well as emotional pain and suffering. If you are curious search for Nick Ortner on YouTube and he's got some AMAZING content teaching this powerful technique. 
4. Gratitude- Gratitude is the antidote to all pain. Feel grateful. You can't feel sad, upset or pain when you genuinely feel grateful. Do guided mediations centred around gratitude. Or write a gratitude journal. Writing makes gratitude come to life.

The key difference between numbing and feeling pain is that when you numb your pain, it comes back multiplied but when you feel your pain and let it flow through you, it comes back diminished. When you consistently deal with your pain by acknowledging and accepting, it will eventually pass.

Some of the biggest problems have been solved by people who feel pain and some of the most beautiful creations in the form of art, music etc come out when people feel their pain. So I urge you to dive deep within and ask what is your higher self is trying to tell you through your pain. Ask empowering and solution based questions. The answers will come eventually! Let this pain move through you and transform you into the biggest and the best version of yourself.