My Love Hate Relationship with Pain
When I was young, I had a very low threshold for pain. I hated pain.
I’m not talking about emotional pain or pain from disease. I have been lucky enough to not face a whole lot of that type of pain. I’m specifically talking about pain from training and competing as an athlete.
When I trained to prepare my body to compete in high school and college, I would let up when I started to feel pain. Obviously, this is not something I’m proud of. As I write this I’m truly embarrassed to admit this weakness. Yet, I’m not afraid to admit this because my desire to help others is greater than my ego. I know that acknowledging this weakness 10 years ago is what allowed me to overcome it.
Over the last 10 years I changed my belief system and learned to embrace pain. I might even venture to say I now even love it a tiny bit.
What helped me with this transformation was finally understanding that pain is part of the process. Every person working to do something they’ve never done before faces pain as part of the process.
My experience with pain is no different than any other athlete’s experience with pain. Every single person who trains at a high level feels pain in their head, chest, legs, arms, back, knees, ankles, and feet. The difference is in how each person handles it.
Those who hate pain and see it as their enemy, fear it and let pain beat them. Those who can love pain and accept it as part of the process, learn how to embrace it and use it to get better.