The Sweet Relief From Pain

One of the best feelings is the relief from pain. No matter if it's physical, emotional, or mental, when the pain goes, we feel sweet relief. This talk presents ways to accept pain in the moment as a part of life. Pain comes and goes. We are the witness to the continuous flow of pain to pleasure.

Transcript

Hi,

This is Brooks and here we are.

It's good to be here with you.

Today we're going to talk about pain.

I think pain is a good subject to talk about because we spend so much of our lives trying to avoid pain.

And that's natural,

You know,

We're built that way.

When we feel pain it's like an indicator something needs to be taken care of and then we want to remove the pain.

And that's real basic.

That's innate in us to do that.

But the really interesting thing about pain,

The thing that,

The things I really like talking about,

You know,

One of the wonderful things about pain is how it feels afterwards.

The relief that comes from the pain going away.

And really that's,

It's quite a wonderful thing.

I mean,

There's a lot of great feelings that we could have in our life.

But I really think one of the best is pain going away.

That experience of the pain is gone.

Whatever the pain was,

Emotional,

Physical,

Mental,

Spiritual,

It's there and then it's gone.

And then there's this sweet relief.

This tremendously great feeling.

And to give you an example,

I stubbed my toe a few weeks ago and it turned red and it got puffy and so I had to take antibiotics.

And I don't like taking antibiotics but I had to take them,

You know,

Because I had a transplant like seven and a half years ago.

So my immune system is a little compromised from some of the drugs that I take for it.

So if anything is happening,

The doctor is always like,

Alright,

Take antibiotics,

You know.

So I don't like it because it makes me feel tired and irritable,

Which is pain,

Right?

And it's not pleasant.

But there's also this knowingness that in ten days or whenever the antibiotics run out,

And for me it was yesterday that it ran out,

And you know when I'm initially taking it,

There's that feeling like it's going to feel so good when I'm off of these antibiotics.

And that's how I felt yesterday when I stopped taking it.

It was just this great relaxation and joy.

I felt like a flower that had been wilted and came back.

And it's all because there was pain and then pain went away.

And when I,

You know,

I was mentioning the transplant and I've talked about that before.

You know,

When I was really sick for like two and a half years,

And I thought,

Boy,

If I lived through this,

You know,

Because I wasn't sure if I was going to live through it.

I thought,

If I lived through this,

I can't wait to feel how good the relief from this is going to be,

You know.

And it really got me through a lot of those tough times because that was really tough.

There was a lot of,

All kinds of pain with that when my lungs were really sick.

And then I had the transplant and then I was,

They put you in a coma for like two or three days so your body can like just work on,

You know,

Incorporate the new organ.

And then I remember being awake and aware.

This feeling of like,

I'm still alive.

I'm alive.

And I feel,

I'm starting to feel good,

You know,

It was so exciting.

It was so exciting.

It's one of the best feelings when I realized I could breathe without an oxygen machine.

You could feel my lungs expand because before that they were so reduced.

They barely expanded at all,

You know.

And I was breathing like a long distance runner all the time like,

Like that.

So here I was taking these long,

Deep breaths.

And I felt like I was on top of the world because I was.

Because that pain was gone.

And I think this is an interesting way to think about pain.

I mean,

There's,

That's a very extreme amount of pain.

But the antibiotics that was taken recently,

That was a tiny amount of pain.

Still was uncomfortable.

And then once it was over,

There was that relief.

The same relief of there's a headache and then the headache's gone.

Or there's a stomachache and then the stomachache's gone.

Or there's a problem,

Let's say like,

I used to have some problems with some bills,

Like paying some bills and I would get behind.

And that was painful.

And then I would pay them and then be like,

Ah,

This relief.

And I don't have that problem at all.

So it's like,

Oh,

You know,

I remember what it used to feel like.

And now it feels good to have my finances in order.

And that's what pain,

Pain is so good for truly enjoying life.

If you look at it this particular way,

You know.

And it can help.

Try it out.

Like if you're in the midst of some real difficulty from the many varieties of pain that life brings us,

You're in the midst of that pain.

And sometimes what happens is our mind takes pain and turns it into suffering by imagining,

Oh,

The pain that I'm feeling right now,

I'm going to feel it forever.

It's always going to be there.

And it's a trick that our mind plays.

And it truly does take pain,

Which is part of life,

You know,

And turns it into suffering,

Which is unbearable.

Because we're thinking,

Oh,

My God,

This is going to be like this forever.

Whatever the pain is,

It's never going to go away.

And that can make us nuts.

And if you find yourself thinking that way,

And I have in the past,

You know,

At times I've felt that way.

What can help is that feeling of looking back at your life and going,

You know what,

Pain comes and goes.

I've had lots of pain in my life.

It's come and gone.

It's come and gone.

Whatever I'm feeling right now,

It hurts.

But it's not always going to be here.

And that eliminates the suffering.

Plus,

Again,

There's that excitement of,

I can't wait till this pain goes away to feel the pleasure of the pain being gone.

And I get excited about that because I know it's one of the best feelings.

And it's sweet.

Like,

If you know it's coming and then it calms,

Like the pain abates,

It goes away,

And then there's that sweet relief.

And you can savor it.

I did that yesterday after that.

I stopped taking the antibiotics.

I was savoring that feeling of the uncomfortableness,

The physical uncomfortableness being gone.

It was like a fine wine or something like that or a very fancy chocolate taking my time to savor every taste.

So again,

It helps to remember,

You know,

In the midst of the pain,

If you notice the suffering,

The suffering,

The feeling,

This is always going to be there.

It's never going to go away.

Could be maybe somebody close to us dies and there's that feeling of grief.

It's a part of life.

Grief is a part of life.

And it comes when there's a great loss.

And it hurts.

It really,

Really,

Really hurts.

But we suffer with that hurting if we think it's never going to go away.

It may be really intense.

It may be taking up all our attention because it hurts so much.

But it's not suffering if we know at some point this will be gone.

And noticing this,

You know,

There's that pain that recognizing like when it comes,

Oh,

Here's pain.

Pain's back.

It won't be here forever.

So it's here temporarily.

And then it goes and then there's the relief and you feel good again.

And it makes you a lot more flexible with pain.

Sometimes we'll feel pain.

Another way of suffering is like there's that pain and it's just we tense up.

It's just like there's this tension like no,

No,

No,

No,

No,

No,

No,

No pain,

No pain.

It's like I don't want this.

I don't want this.

But when there's a feeling of there's pain and it can be really it could be intense.

But there's that knowing this.

OK,

Pain comes and goes.

Pain comes and goes.

It's a natural part of life.

Life moves in a pendulum like that.

And all you have to do is just take a few moments,

Some time,

Just remember,

Remember some pain that you felt and how it was there and then it went away.

Maybe it was there for a while,

But then it went away.

Maybe it was there really briefly and then it went away.

Again,

There's many types of pain,

Physical,

Mental,

Emotional,

Spiritual.

And it does help to recognize that it's part of life,

Just like seasons.

I don't live in an area where there's a lot of snow or there's any snow here in Northern California.

But when I used to live around snow,

At first I was like,

Oh,

It's snow,

It's exciting.

And then I was like,

Oh,

My God,

How much longer is the snow going to be here?

I was just tired of being cold and tired of my feet freezing and my nose getting really,

Really cold when I'd be outside.

But then there was a thought of like,

Oh,

Spring,

Spring's coming,

You know,

And then when spring came,

There was this relief.

My body relaxed.

Because that discomfort was gone.

So those are some things to think about regarding pain.

And I encourage you to try it,

Try these out,

Try them on.

You know,

Delve into this perhaps,

You know.

Use your curiosity and see what you see and see how it goes.

And it's good spending time with you.

And I wish you the best.

Take care.

Bye.

Reviews

Very relatable. Thank you

Thanks Brooks for your insight and sharing your experience around Pain. As a chronic pain suffer, I look at other people who look healthy and expect them to not know my experience. So glad you came through your transplant well. My conditions are different but the suffering and experience of pain is universal, which you so skillfully shared thank you And I wish you a pain-free day!

Thank you Brooks, these insights surrounding pain were perfectly timed for me🙏🏼💘