I hope that your weekend was filled with fun and memorable activities with those you love. Last year during lockdown, many of us experienced a great deal of pain and grief.
The contrast to pain is joy, and this year definitely feels more joyful because of all that we experienced last year. Interestingly, a lot of research has been done about pain, and it shows that people have grown increasingly intolerant of it.
Although life is objectively more comfortable, affluent, and less threatening than ever, for many – it doesn’t feel like enough. The new norm is that life should consist of nothing but positive experiences. In spite of all our attempts to remove pain or sorry, of course, it still exists. It’s a natural part of life. It is not a sign of personal failure. Pain is not the opposite of happiness but an essential element of it.
Banishing all pain from life would erase all pleasure and happiness as well. Many of life’s most enjoyable moments, from an early-morning jog to the birth of a child, mix the pleasant and the painful. When you shield yourself from bad times, you never develop the skills to cope with adversity when it does arise. Achieving an authentic feeling of happiness requires adopting a more “fearless” attitude toward life, one in which you accept and deal with physical pain and the anguish of loneliness, failure and sadness. Life is a constant contrast of pain and joy. When you fearlessly go out and seek out new adventures, willing to take the pain with the pleasure, you will constantly feel the joy, or peace, that comes with overcoming the pain, or discovering something new.
Something to Think About
Pain and pleasure are contrasts that are typically linked together. A morning jog is painful, especially the first time you do it. But you experience a contrasting euphoria when you get home and relax. A cold glass of water will taste better after that long run when you are thirsty. When you are extremely hungry, a simple meal will taste delicious. Embrace both the pain and pleasure that life has to give and explore the yin and yang that a balanced life has to offer.
Weekly Activity
This week, when you feel pain, remember today’s lesson. Don’t look for a quick fix to get rid of the pain, but embrace the lesson that it is teaching you.
Words of Wisdom
Today I choose life. Every morning when I wake up I can choose joy, happiness, negativity or pain. To feel the freedom that comes from being able to continue to make mistakes and choices. Today I choose to feel life, not to deny my humanity but embrace it. – Kwvyn Aucoin
Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever. – Lance Armstrong
Courage is feeling fear, not getting rid of fear, and taking action in the face of fear. – Roy T. Bennett
To me, fearless is not the absence of fear. It’s not being completely unafraid. To me, fearless is having fears. Fearless is having doubts. Lots of them. To me, fearless is living in spite of those things that scare you to death. – Taylor Swift
Pave your own path and be fearless. – Adam Draper
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