The Fear of Pain

Daily Quote

"Recovery is something that you have to work on every single day, and it's something that doesn't get a day off."

-Demi Lovato-

Lesson of the Day

Fear is everywhere these days, and indeed it's an intrinsic part of the human experience. One of the worst manifestations is hate, and the fighting that comes from it. Particularly, I'm talking about the avoidance of dealing with pain. I see these people who stay connected to others literally every waking hour of their lives, who are always with others physically, always busy, who avoid silence and solitude like the plague. In silence and solitude, we can hear our inner thoughts, process our lives and what we're feeling, to think without distraction. You see, I don't think, in this case, that people are fearing doing things alone, rather I think that they don't want to face themselves, don't want to face their lives, don't want to hurt. I've found that, in myself, I'm more apt to be overly busy when I'm hurting than when I'm doing great. When I'm hurting, I used to avoid dealing with it by staying overly busy, and I see the exact same behavior patterns in people of all ages out in the world. We avoid pain, and that's it. That's all it is, we fear pain, and so avoid it. From experience, the best path I've found is to use the silence and solitude to feel that hurt, to process it and explore it, to deal with it. I get it, it sucks when you hurt, you don't want to feel like crap. When you don't end up where you wanted to be in life, when you lose the things you love, when you fail, it hurts, I get it. Pain sucks. Do you know what's worse? Bringing that pain into everything you do, carrying it for years and years, inflicting it's negative effects on those close to you, just because you don't want to deal with it. There is no substitute to dealing with your pain, not a single one. You just pawn it off on others in a new form. Don't live in fear, deal with your issues, deal with your pain, choose to live a better life in reality than one avoiding it.

Questions to Ponder

What pains are you bringing with you? Are there things you're avoiding? If so, why? Are you truly happy, or are you so out of touch with yourself that you don't even know how you really feel? Do you know yourself?

Gratitude

Today I'm thankful for having time to be in solitude and silence. I spent the entire morning just thinking, and thus the post was born. I'm so thankful for you all, thank you all for reading! I hope you all take something from this, and that you all have a great day!