Today is April 21 and the Navigate the Chaos question to consider is “How often do you allow your pain the power to change you in a positive, beautiful way?”
Humans experience various types of pain. Two of the most common types of pain are emotional/social and physical.
Emotional pain refers to the death of a loved one, the break-up of a relationship, or the reaction to witnessing a special event such as a wedding. New research has found that social pain activates similar brain circuits whether someone was suffering personally or if they experienced the pain as an empathic response to another person's social pain.
From an evolutionary standpoint, these pain responses protect the individual but also fortify social connectivity which protects the collective.
Humans also experience physical pain. It turns out that physical pain has two components.
One is called the sensory component and is related to the physical characteristics of pain, such as the location of the pain, the type of pain (pinprick versus a burn, for example), and the intensity of the pain.
As poet Nikita Gill wrote “Pain changes people. This is no secret. But your pain speaks with wisdom. When you are a child, the same pain teaches you to not touch fire by burning your fingers. When you grow older the fire turns into people. Your pain will teach you how to be careful, but it will also teach you how to be compassionate to others, be kind to those who are hurting and how to be strong in the face of adversity. Allow your pain the power to change you in a positive, beautiful way.”
How often do you allow your pain the power to change you in a positive, beautiful way?