I’ve talked about the no pain society before. That our society looks at pain as a basic human rights violation. As soon as someone is in pain the society yells, “this person is in pain over here, call 911, we need to stop their pain ASAP, everyone come quickly and stop their pain.” And here’s the elephant in the living room folks. Pain and disease and depression and grief etc etc……are all there to save us. Pain isn’t a goblin, it’s a guardian. Pain is always sent to us to literally grab our hand and to guide us to a better way of living. Pain is meant to alert us that we need to let go. Pain is there to say, “you’re going to live much longer and be much more happy if you move away from the situation you’re currently in.”

I know a teacher who just took a long leave of absence. She doesn’t like her job and this has nothing to do with teaching. When someone doesn’t like what they’re doing, they get depressed and they develop addictions. The depression is the pain. The addictions are the result of actually battling to stay inside the pain. (caffeine, alcohol, junk food, THC, media, meds etc) She’s overweight, depressed, addicted, miserable and she’s going to die earlier because she fights and battles to stay inside her pain. The pain is there to hold her hand and say, “it’s time to leave, it’s time to change, you’re done with this part of your life now, there’s more for you to accomplish elsewhere, here follow me….let go.” But in the NO PAIN SOCIETY we tell pain to go away and to shut up. We’re told that our pain is a sign that we’re broken. It’s a lie. Pain is a sign we’re working as designed. Our pain is there to save us. It’s our society’s inverted reactions to pain and its fear of change that’s causing the problems. Let pain take your hand and walk you out into a better way of living. Don’t fight tooth and nail to stay in your pain. Just walk away and embrace the message the pain is bringing. Let go.