Change is Pain so Life is Pain

Change is Pain 

Prior to my motorcycle accident you could say that I subscribed to the "pain is weakness leaving the body" or the "no pain no gain" philosophy. Even now you probably wouldn't recognize much of a difference, but I have come to a new understanding of Pain.

Those philosophies are in my mind not quite complete or at least not worded just quite right. You see, or well you will hopefully see by the time I am done writing. Those philosophies are saying just about the same thing and will lead you to what they mean if you sit and think about them. 

The above is a piece of propaganda used by the US Marine Recruiting office to get more people to join the marines. Its also figuratively true, and very effective in their commercials. Pain is weakness leaving the body. If you punch a tree over and over again every day for a few years your hand wont be broken (unless you punched TOO hard). Instead, it will be toughed, and calloused, and you will be able to take far more pain. When a problem in life is emotionally painful you are emotionally scarred. But if you learn from it, the emotional scars will scab over and you will be a strong, more experienced and mature person because of it. When this occurs, as long as your emotional pain does not destroy you, it will eventually make you strong if you allow it too. [1]

No pain, no gain (or "No gain without pain") is an old proverb, used since the 1980s as an exercise motto that promises greater value rewards for the price of hard and even painful work. Under this conception competitive professionals, such as athletes and artists, are required to endure pain (physical suffering) and stress (mental/emotional suffering) to achieve professional excellence. Medical experts agree that the proverb is wrong for exercise [2]

Both sayings involve pain and a reward from enduring it. What bit of extra knowledge I have to add is that all change is pain and all pain is change. How many times have you been forced to do something other than what you had intended because of another; you changed. How many times has the reason you had chose to do something differently been because of pain avoidance for yourself or another? How many times has your life completely up ended it's self or tried to and it not cause some form of pain?

My answer to all those questions is every time. This is how I have come to the conclusion that change is pain and pain is change.

If we as individuals and thus as a species want to actually improve ourselves, not just our physical circumstances, then we need to redefine our relationship with pain. This redefinition has to include coping mechanisms for how to handle massive change, other wise known as massive pain. 

In the past the life raft that we as a species has clung to was religion. Religion is a human construct and as such flawed; but that leads to what if anything can we create that will not be flawed? Religion's biggest fail was that it most if not all of them were constructed in a time when the population was much lower than it is now and individuals were much more independent. 

The need for Religion has not faded, because we need that rational side of our brain to let go of what it actually does not understand. By giving to a "higher" power that which we don't understand and thus that which we cannot control it allows us to work with what we can control and understand.

Life is Pain

The only constant in life is change therefore if change is pain then life is pain. The reason the only constant in life is change is because life (and nature) abhor stagnation. That and because for every action there is a reaction; think pool balls on a pool table. Hit one ball and it bounces about until it strikes another or runs out of momentum. The pool ball's state changed and in its changing caused others to change as well. Due to the vast number of species on the planet there are a vast number of pool balls bouncing around in our world (pool table) all interacting with each other in some way. I do believe this is part of chaos theory or maybe it was the butterfly effect. So is that nature abhor's stagnation? Or is it because there are just so many moving parts nothing will ever stay the same as each reacts to the next? A bigger mind will have to help with those questions.

How much pain you feel is completely dependent on your attachment to what ever has changed to a new state. If you are very attached to being able bodied, then being placed in a position where you are not able bodied any more can be painful if you do not accept the change. 

References:

1. https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Pain%20is%20weakness%20leaving%20the%20body 

2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_pain,_no_gain