MONDAY MENTIONABLES - Embracing Pain

I've been thinking about the idea of pain for quite a long time. I've had lots of surgeries in the last 3 years, and I know how my body reacts and how long it takes for me to feel better. It's the pain during recovery that I've never been able to gauge.

I had a surgery last Wednesday, and I knew ahead of time that the recovery would be painful. And, actually, the day after surgery wasn't too bad... I was sore, but that was no surprise. The surprise came in the afternoon when a wall of pain slammed into me. It really hasn't let up since then. So, I've been trying to figure out how to deal with the pain. With this surgery, the pain is from the bruising. Imagine your worst bruise ever, and then multiply that by 1000. No, really. That's what this is like. I have to wear a compression garment as well, so that's just like someone pushing on the bruises. So, with all this pain, it's easy for me to become overwhelmed. If I started to think about what will happen when the pain pills wear off, I start to panic.

That's what got me thinking about embracing the pain. What I mean is this: if I really concentrate, I can focus on just the parts of my body where the pain is - and that helps me realize that the pain is really only in a few different spots. And yes... it really hurts in those few spots, but the rest of me is fine. I know it sounds weird, but it seems to work. If I embrace the pain in just the few spots where it really hurts, then my mind is forced to focus and it doesn't panic me as much. Publilius Syrus, a Roman author from the 1st century said this: “The pain of the mind is worse than the pain of the body”. Maybe he didn't mean it exactly like this, but I believe it's true - the mind can easily enlarge the pain of the body if we don't control our thoughts.

I've Googled Embracing Pain During Healing, and there isn't much, but one person said that when we embrace the pain, then suddenly it's not so painful. I'm trying to decide if that's true, or if it's just that embracing the pain helps to control how I react to it. Another quote I read: “Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.” I guess that says it all - yes, there will be pain from recovering (and other things in our lives), but we don't have to suffer from that pain - or, at least, our suffering can be minimized.

Anyway, I'd like to get your thoughts on this - have any of you ever tried to embrace the pain during healing? If so, has it helped?