Be thankful for the pain. That’s right.

Are you feeling an ache? Physically, emotionally, circumstantially,? Pay attention to it and receive the message it’s sending you.

Physically, when we feel pain, discomfort, a fever, a headache, those kinds of things, that’s information we need to be awake, receive that information and assess what to do about it. Pain serves a purpose in compelling us to know something is not right and we need to remedy it, hopefully get to the root cause and eliminate it
Emotionally. We can feel pain. Sometimes we feel it in small increments and it grows over time, such that we aren’t even aware that the ache is present until it’s excruciating. So wake up to the pain, receive it, acknowledge it earlier, and address it quickly to avoid the ramifications of true, awful, awful, debilitating pain.

Circumstantially, we can find ourselves in a spin, in rut situations that are holding us back. And,again, we often accommodate. We know something’s not right, but we don’t necessarily want to expend the energy to address it, ‘cause sometimes it’s not simple to do. However, when we acknowledge the circumstantial pain and make modifications or completely change scenarios, we set ourselves up for long-term progress and success.

We make what can and should be simple—simple so that we can then invest our time and energy in the more complicated things that move us forward, that propelled us, that spark us, and that matter more.

Be thankful for the pain and wake up to it. If you’re already at a point of excruciating pain, be it physically, emotionally, circumstantially or otherwise, I invite you, seek some alleviation of the pain so that you can think clearly and strategize where you need to go from here.

Long ago, my husband was having some pain in his jaw. It had been around a long time. He knew it was there. I knew it was there because he would mention it on occasion, but it kept increasing until over time it became excruciating enough and disruptive enough that we both stepped into action to find resolution. It turned out that he was a candidate for major jaw surgery. The kind where they break the jaw, reconfigure it, and wire you shut for six weeks so that it heals properly. in advance of that invasive surgery, he spent about a year in a splint that alleviated the pain that had grown over time that we had been aware of, but had not adequately addressed so that he could feel better and make more clear decisions.

I share that real life example of physical pain and how it ultimately got resolved because it’s a great example of how you kind of feel the ache. It gets worse, it gets worse, it gets worse over time until suddenly can’t hardly even think straight because it’s so debilitating. So then you have to build a stop-gap in between there before you can get to full resolution.

We as human beings have the capability to raise our awareness, direct our attention accordingly, and then take action to not only acknowledge the pain, but then get past it. Pain serves a wonderful and helpful purpose. Let’s be thankful for it and use it to our advantages.

Thanks for being here.