Have you ever noticed what a young child does the FIRST time they bump their head?
If you would have asked me what pain was a few years ago, my response would have been along the lines of, “Something that sucks and should be numbed as quickly as possible. I mean really, who likes pain except those crazy S&M folks?”
Over time, yoga began to provide me a new set of tools. In addition to a nifty rubber handled screwdriver, meditation, and pranayama, I vividly remember an episode where I attempted to open one of those hard plastic wrapped items with a pocket knife. I’m not sure what I did, but the next thing I knew, the knife had slipped and sliced into my thumb and index finger. I immediately gripped my hand into a tight fist and clenched up my entire body. It was one of those instances where you KNEW it was a bad cut, it was going to bleed a LOT, and hurt like a mouthful of angry bees.
But for once, I broke the cycle. My mind and body relaxed and I wondered, “What would happen if I accepted this experience instead of resisting it?” I calmly walked to the bathroom and gently opened my hand over the sink. Color flooded back into my palm and fingers and the torrent of blood began to exit my thumb and finger. However, instead of there being an intense “bad pain” I instead felt a “good pain”. I marveled at the miracle that was taking place before my eyes and imagined the matrix of platelets slowly being built to stem the flow of blood. The experience turned out to be a good one and it was amazing how fast the wounds healed.
Since then, pain has taken on a new meaning for me. It’s not something I fear or resist, instead, it’s something I observe and accept. I’ve learned that pain is often a signpost and that my mind loves to label pain as something bad when instead it is a doorway to transformation.
What is pain to you?
I know you were illustrating a point, I’m just teasing you a bit.
