About Pain

Over the course of the past few years I have been going through many personal changes. Some have been relatively superficial, while others have been very deep and profound. There has been one thing however, that has accompagnied all the steps in my ongoing transformation. Pain.

Now that may be something that scares most people out of embracing change and transformation because pain is generally something that we want to stay away from, but allow me to explain myself a little bit.

When I say "pain", what I really mean is "resistance".

Many have spoken and written about this before. What it means is that what we generally call "pain" is only a perspective or attitude about a sensation. It is an illusion.

If you go through a gruelling physical workout, for example, what you generally feel is some kind of hot sensation in your muscles, and perhaps also in your heart and lungs, and maybe some pressure on your skeleton if you lift extremely heavy. There will also be cramping and loss of limb control because of fatigue and your arms or legs will feel like jello with high repetition and endurance work. The next day or two will probably bring with it deep soreness, stiffness, and heightened nervous sensitivity.

Now, this is an extreme example, and training so much that you can hardly walk or move the next day is never a great idea, unless you really want to push yourself beyond what you have ever done before, and only then to do it infrequently. However, the point I want to make here is that "pain" is only resistance to change.

How so?

Well, when you are training, that is a change in the state of your body. You therefore feel a certain pain, which tends to grow as the magnitude of the change grows. The more you try to change at the same time, or the greater the change you try to make, the more "pain" you will feel... as long as there is resistance inside of you.

Let me give you another example.

Think of a lighter. What causes the spark? It's the friction between the metal and the flint when you strike it that causes it to spark and ignite the fuel in the lighter. Did you catch that? It's the friction (which is a form of resistance to movement or change) which causes the spark. So people who have a "short fuse" can be said to be highly resistant to whatever sparked their anger. Even the littlest things really "grate on their nerves" and that friction is the spark that can cause them to explode. Fuel here is whatever they have built up inside themselves.

There is also the highly graphic example of someone going to a proctologist. The more you resist, the more it is going to hurt. Dude! If you've got to go through it, at least allow it to go smoothly by relaxing and thinking about something nice! And don't forget the lube! The less resistance, the better!

Now on a more toned down level. Suppose that you are changing a major situation in your life, one that brings with it lots of uncertainty. You are going into a new job you have never done before, or you move to another city you are not familiar with, or you suddenly find yourself with new people or without the people that you have come to depend upon. What happens? Fear. And "fear" is just another way to label the pain that we feel.

So, in essence, all negative emotions derive from that basic sensation of pain inside of us. And the pain is once again a resistance to change, or to put it another way, it is a resistance to what IS.

And this brings us back to the universal topic of being fully present in what IS. In the moment. In the real power fo NOW. Allowing everything to happen as it is. Going with the flow of Life. Not resisting what is. Life is change. Do not resist Life. The friction caused inside of you when you try to resist change will be very painful. The more you resist, the more painful it becomes.

And how can this be applied?

Well, a change in attitude or beliefs is the best place to start. Affirm to yourself until you really believe it and live it, that you are aware and present in the moment, right now, and that you allow everything to flow into, and out of, your life in a positive, healthy way and for the highest good of all. Then keep your goals in mind and move forward.

Do what is necessary. Release any resistance you have about it. Just figure out what you need to do or to learn, and do it. And always remember to be fully in the moment - like right NOW - at the same time. Even when you push yourself past your previous limits in training. If you remain fully in the moment, you will feel the sensations, they may be very intense, but there will be no pain, only inner peace... and extraordinary power.

If I had known this stuff 10 years ago, I could have saved myself a whole lot of pain and made progress much faster. So if you want to save yourself a decade or more and get ahead, learn from me.

And remember, as long as you keep learning and moving forward, pain is fine. Or as motivational speaker Tom Hopkins said it, "pain of change is forgotten when the benefits of that change are realized". And that's another great attitude to have to eliminate resistance about what you think should be.

Whatever happens, just let it be.

It's ALL good.

Charles

Copyright © Charles Begin