Ink and Letters

Painful No More

I used to think that pain was just the discomfort we feel when we get wounds, scratches and burns; but I was wrong—totally wrong. What I used to know was the kind of pain–physical pain–that is caused by the stimulation of the nerves. It can be remedied and cured easily.

And then, there is emotional pain. This is the pain that can never be eased just like that. It's not just about discomfort, not just a sensation. Actually, it can be described as nothing at all. This particular pain creates a great voidness in your heart and in your life. This emptiness will be the cause of sleepless nights and lonely mornings that you become desperate to know what that bare feeling is. You tend to be agitated, always anxious to find out how you will be able to fill the empty space within you.

It's the worse feeling. It's like being crippled a day before your basketball tournament. It's like deep-sea diving without an aqualung. It's like, you know, loving someone more than anything else but still ending up hurt and broken.

Sometimes, we blame others for the misery we experience. When we do this, pain is just being magnified and reflected back to us. We didn't want pain inside us so we force it towards other people. Oftentimes when we are hurting, we want the people around us to be hurting, too. But does this help? Certainly, no.

We experience pain when things fall out from our hands, when plans didn't go well, or when things just do not work out anymore. Meaning, it is beyond our control. No normal person would manipulate things to inflict suffering to themselves. What we want is happiness, peace, and love. But when circumstances turn upside-down, we experience the unwanted reciprocate.

Fortunately, even if these outside forces are inevitable most of the times, you can still control the inner forces within you. When we get affected too much with what is happening in our life, our morals and principles degrade as well. Then, we hit rock bottom. But it doesn't have to be like that. You cannot control these events in your life but you can absolutely control the meaning that they create. Do not devalue yourself. Develop a sense of positivity. Do not focus on the bad days, people, and situations that have hurt you. Instead, focus on how you will be able to improve yourself and learn from them.

Our emotions are vulnerable to pain. They are sensitive. We are sensitive and emotional people. But we are smart, too. That is why from rock bottom, we can still manage to stand up and aim high. So the next time it hurts, smile until there is pain no more.