Where Does Your Pain Go When You Let It Go?

[ladee]

I was thinking the other night, about where I am now in my life, in my struggles and absolute stone cold dropped out of human life person I was at one time...Thinking back on some of that pain. Thinking I was surely going to die THIS time because my body, mind and soul could not bare another moment of it. And yet I woke up the next day, sad and body exhausted, so much running thru my head. So confused, so hurt and so alone.
Many memories last night, but not with feelings attached to them. Some of them are just pictures. As healed as I will be in this lifetime.
What went thru my mind was, where did all that pain go, as I slowly released it? I had this picture in my mind of this awful smelling, gooey, slimy, slithering mess, just out in the atmosphere, waiting to glom onto another soon to be victim. Or it would glom onto someone who was a potential abuser....
I had never given it any thought of where it went. Until last night.And that is the first picture to come to my mind....No way!!!!!! Just NO F'n way !!! And I refused to think I would be contributing to another generation of US... I had to have another picture in my mind.
I simply got quite, let my mind settle. I could see myself at different 'letting go stages', and there would be a beautiful gossamer line threading it's way to the sky... And at the end of each thread was a star. A shining reminder that I had made it this far. So far away, bad turned into good, and it couldn't hurt me anymore. Pictures without feelings !!!

So where do you think or want your pain to go when you let it go? Very interested in hearing what y'all think and feel about this.... People with Shamans may have a more clear way of understanding this...Thanks in advance if you participate....

 

[Deleted member 28403]

The pain is not something that is conserved, nor something that is material, or measurable in a similar way. It's a subjective experience in my opinion. It's in our minds, and once it's gone, the constant feeling, it's simply not there anymore. Noone else has to suffer for us stopping to feel pain.

There is no finite amount of pain. But due to the vast amount of people in the world, at any moment, someone is experiencing it, unfortunately.
Glad that you are well on your way to recovery though :)

Good luck in further recovery :hug: And there is no limit as to how much we can invest in ourselves, other than the length of our lives

 

[RussH]

Pain does not go anywhere. The only reason we have pain is because we are wounded, and the pain is a testimony to that wound. When we heal the pain ceases to exist.
Pain is not some independent entity, but a function or our nerves, or in the case of emotional pain our soul. It is not something that leaves us to move on to someone else, but rather an indication of hypersensitive nerves because of a physical trauma, or a hypersensitive psyche due to emotional trauma. When the wounds heal the pain ends.

 

[Klo]

It gets converted into strength. That is the reward at the end, when you have successfully processed it.

 

[ladee]

Really like that @Klo !!!! Thanks

 

[Tinyflame]

Where would I want it to go? Back to Hell, is what it feels like.

What is it? A subjective experience of physical pain & thoughts, including (but not limited to) loss, grief, sorrow, horror, hopelessness, & other negatively-experienced emotions, I suppose. Experienced in the present, encased within fear of the future, +/or re-experienced with unresolved memories & most viruntely with ptsd.

 

[Sideways]

I'm totally with @Klo on this. I see pain as a type of energy, which grows healthier as we recover, becoming less toxic over time, and eventually converting to liberation and vibrancy as our health and psyche are restored.

If these forums show just one thing, it's the immense compassion that sufferers (and their supporters) have for each other. You couldn't pass on your pain if you tried @ladee - to the contrary, your contributions here help to minimise the suffering & isolation of those that come after you.

 

[sun seeker]

I had this picture in my mind of this awful smelling, gooey, slimy, slithering mess, just out in the atmosphere, waiting to glom onto another soon to be victim.

No, no... it's the opposite. The less of it you hold on to, the more healed you will be and the more good you will be able to do for others (not that you don't already do good for others!).

In my belief, what we release goes into the earth. I guess I picked this up from various healers along the way, I can't pinpoint when in particular. And no, we don't contaminate the earth with our pain, the earth transmutes it.

It's good to visualize where the pain is going, and you have lots of very visual and tactile words for it. Can you see and feel that mess falling away from you into the earth?

Also, when we release trauma somatically, we make room for the good stuff that is buried underneath it. Visualizing is awesome. Trauma release is another part getting at the essence of who we are. Do you have a good trauma therapist?

Edited to add: I've carried a lot of shame for how much pain I have. Felt that I contaminated others with it, just by being around them and letting them see it, not so much by releasing it. There have been people who have reinforced that idea, unfortunately. I am letting go of this notion with the help of a very compassionate therapist. I highly recommend it.

 

[Tinyflame]

I don't think there's anything grand or noble about pain itself. I think it's the overcoming of it that is good. But not everyone does or can.

You definitely aren't causing it or passing it on to others @ladee , just the opposite. That would be more like eg the cycle of abuse.

 

[sun seeker]

There was a thread some time ago where someone was worrying about whether she was a narcissist. Someone pointed out that the mere fact that she was worrying about it was a pretty good sign that she wasn't. I would say that the fact that you are worrying about whether you are hurting others by releasing your pain is a sign of a compassionate person who is probably suffering from an overdeveloped sense of responsibility. If you can... don't worry about it. Easier said than done, I know.

 

[Tinyflame]

I think too when we've gone through it we know how it feels so we don't want to risk causing others to feel it.

It's like protecting others from what we weren't protected from. (Even if that means protecting 'them' from 'us'.)

 

[Sideways]

@sun seeker - I actually got diagnosed with Narcissism Type 2, which threw me because it sounded like something the doctor had made up.

Sure enough, there's an opposite to being utterly in love with yourself: having a pervasive, irrational, pathological self-loathing (mmm, that would be my belief that I'm actually so vile that I'm toxic to other people)...I'm guessing that probably sounds familiar to more than one or two others here!

My doctor has the good grace to leave that Off my medical certificates since it's likely to be misunderstood!