Why tough out pain?

We need to discern clearly what is what in each situation that we find ourselves when confronted with pain. In acute trauma I’m all for pain relief. Modern medicine has done wonders for this type of situation. Why put up with pain when we don’t need to. It’s masochistic. I regularly find myself in situations dealing with very severe pain, about 8-9 out of 10 on the pain scale. In those situations I use morphine to deal with the pain, and I use the power of my own pain practice to be with the pain, relax, breath and stay open to the pain.

The most recent was a urinary tract infection earlier this year. I was staying on an island, about an hour ferry trip and car journey out of Auckland. The pain started, and I know this pain well, it just gradually increases in intensity until I can hardly walk, over about a 1-2 hour period. Well the pain began, and I headed straight down to the emergency doctor on the Island. The surgery was busy so I had to wait for about 30 minutes before getting any relief. In that situation I used my pain breathing practice while I waited for the doctor. I saw the doctor explained my history and situation and received an immediate intra-muscular injection  of morphine. Within 15 minutes I was relaxed and in relief. I then had oral antibiotics for the tract infection and was back on the mend within a few days.

What I didn’t do was try to tough out the pain. This just doesn’t work. We need to really deeply check that we dont do this with our pain. We need to be kind to ourselves. Pain is bad enough in small doses, for those of us who have a lot of it, we need to learn to be really kind to ourselves and do what we can to alleviate it where we can.

Tweet This Post

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.