CoffeeTime: "Old Man Pain is Determined to Win"

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You are aging, every second you are alive, that is an inescapable fact. And right along with that joyous and party-mood-making pronouncement is another fact. Multiple years of aging most always brings on a certain amount of physical pain.

Ready to invite me to your next happy-go-lucky soiree yet? “Oh yeah, give that woman a mic and let her be the life of the party!”

Not so fast to condemn me, my sarcastic friend. All I want to do is help you get armed and ready for your personal one-on-one battle with an enemy that hates you and is determined to take you out. To turn you into a sniveling, angry, pain-controlled shell of the person you used to be.

No, I’m not a drug pusher for a big pharmaceutical company. And I’m not telling you to “just pray the pain away.”  Here is what I am going to tell you. Don’t concentrate on what hurts. You are giving Old Man Pain a whole bunch more credit than he deserves in your life.

Sure, you hurt, I realize that. I hurt too.  I’m not discounting the way the pain surges through whatever part of your body is affected. But I am asking you to deliberately not allow pain to be the most important thing in your life, as much as you possibly can. 

Don’t misunderstand me, I’m aware that severe pain has the ability to stand up and scream at you so loudly that not much else gets through to you. But not all hurting in our bodies has that capability. Many times, it just gripes, and gripes, and gripes so long and persistently that we finally just give in and make it the priority in our life. We have volunteered our body, mind and emotions for a whole-sale hostile takeover. DON’T DO THAT!

Fight for the right to enjoy your days and nights. Battle that tendency we all have, to just plop ourself down in a sad puddle of self-pity and stare at the offending arm, leg, neck, foot, or whatever, and then whine to ourself about how it has taken over our entire life.

WELL, WHAT DO YOU EXPECT TO HAPPEN, WHEN YOU GIVE THAT OFFENDING PART OF YOUR BODY THE TOP BILLING IN YOUR MIND?!

Decide to take control, as much as possible. Get your mind involved in something else. Anything else. Stick your nose in a great book, glue your eyes onto the tv with a fantastic movie, prop up your pain-filled body part on an ice pack and get involved in a rousing board game with a loved one. Do something  that will interrupt your concentration on Mr. Pain’s efforts.

Now, I am not telling you to never use pain meds – yours truly is not a medical doctor, I don’t have that right. But I do know that our brains have powerful influence on our physical body – and especially at controlling pain.

And find a way to laugh. “Laughter doeth good like a medicine,” the Bible says.