Pain is something that in one degree or another, within ourselves or on the faces of others, we deal with everyday. Pain, whether it is physical, mental, spiritual, understood or misunderstood is one of life’s most intimate experiences and runs the gamut of “Aw shucks, taint nothing” to “I just can’t handle this,” all while stalking us all the way from stubbing our toe to breaking a bone to a lifetime of chronic pain. From the tears of sadness to the anguish of not knowing, to finally knowing and sometimes wishing you didn’t.  Something all of us must realize is pain is different for each person! Even seemingly having the same pain, one person might barely notice it while another is brought to their knees. And yet no matter what, pain is real, no matter who the victim is. Pain is simply just that, real. Because pain is so individual, I’m writing most of this from my own perspective and my own journey, (So you’ll notice the word “I” a lot.) from my experience and based on the things I’ve done to get me to where I am now. Some worked, some didn’t. Some were immediate and some are still unfolding. Let’s get one thing straight, I can’t tell tell you how to lessen your pain, but I can tell you what I’ve done to lessen mine and the lessons I’ve learned in the process. My hope is that might be at the least a starting point for you. Pain is like being trapped in a huge building with all the lights out! You know where you are—kind of. You know it’s where you don’t want to be. You can’t see any way out. And yes, pain is very scary… Pain is something that others might be able to help with, but even after their help, ultimately it was up to me to walk through or walk with the pain. Ultimately it was up to me to check and see where that switch is and then, time after time, summon the courage to see if I can flip it and “turn the lights on” and the pain off or at least down. One truth about pain is that the pain that I imagine, is usually much much worse than the actual pain I’ll endure. Lets say I’m laying in bed dreading getting up because I’m imagining, I mean in my heart I “know” how much it will hurt to move, to sit up, to get up and then stand up, but once I finally do get up, oh it still hurts, but not nearly as much as I’d convinced myself it would. In other words, pain doesn’t exists on just one plain, it exists on all of them! The physical, mental and spiritual plains of life. Pain feeds off itself and morphs from an already scary monster into one that, if we allow it to, is unconquerable! That is unless we call it’s bluff! As if to scare me even […]