Pain is a Gift!

No one enjoys experiencing pain whether it is physical or emotional, but we all have to once in a while. The trick is learning how to recognize and handle the pain you feel so that you can make changes in your life. The tips below will help you turn your pain into positive, productive energy.

Change your negative attitude towards pain.
When you hear the word “pain” what comes to mind? More than likely negative emotions and synonyms such as hurt are conjured up. Start thinking of pain is a gift. It is a gift, after all. Imagine if you had no way of perceiving when something bad was happening to your body. If your stomach didn’t hurt when you have appendicitis you would never know anything was wrong and you’d never visit your doctor. What about a toothache? The infection would just spread to the brain before you felt any pain at all.

Much like physical pain, emotional pain is also a sign that something needs attention. Maybe a relationship in your life needs to evolve or possibly end. Address emotional pain just as you would physical pain. Think of pain as a tool that helps you change what is wrong.

Detect pain right from the start.
Most of the time we don’t listen to our bodies well enough. We don’t notice or take care of ourselves at the first symptom of pain. We take way too long to seek medical attention when we are sick, and we shove our emotional pain under the rug.

When we don’t respond to pain promptly it festers and leads to bigger problems. Learn to read your body and immediately detect your pain. In relationships we often don’t say anything to our significant other until the issue has blown way out of proportion. Treat pain from the start so the problem doesn’t worsen.

Learn from your pain.
Valuable lessons can come from experiencing pain, especially the emotional kind such as heart break. Whenever you are experiencing pain use it as a chance to discover things about yourself you didn’t know. Usually when a romantic relationship ends it is because for some reason the couple just wasn’t compatible. This is a great learning opportunity to address what you want and need from a relationship going forward.

Recall the old joke about the man who goes to his doctor and says, “When I do this it hurts” and the doctor replies, “well then don’t do that.” Just like physical pain, we have to protect ourselves from getting hurt emotionally. You are your own best doctor. If you know someone or something will end up hurting you, don’t go down that road. You owe it to yourself.

Listen to your body and do what you need to do to take care of yourself both physically and emotionally. You can’t be a good significant other, parent, or friend unless you do. Thinking of pain as a gift is a great way to start taking care of you and move forward. Learn to detect and handle pain immediately and you are on your way to a happier, healthier life.

Brandi Hamrick, life and dating coachnwww.brandihamrick.comn