How to Not Feel Pain:
The Secret to Handling Anything
What type of pain are we talking about?
Emotional or physical? Both types suck, but can be mitigated through a variety of techniques.
An important thing to remember is that pain, both physical and emotional, is a natural part of the human experience. Don’t be ashamed of it! Don’t plan on eliminating it completely. You need it! It serves a very useful purpose.
Physically, it prevents you from doing excessive damage to your body. It prevents you from resting your hand on a hot stove, and biting your tongue every time you chew your food. It warns you of dangerous processes going on in your body, like cancer, that needed to be handled asap. Pain keeps you alive.
Emotionally, it enables you to learn from your mistakes. It gives you the incentive to evolve spiritually, intellectually, even financially. Pain makes you grow!
It’s like Miracle Grow for a tomato plant, or steroids for a child body-builder.
When a loved one dies unexpectedly, that excruciating pain forces you to develop an increased appreciation for the people you still have. It causes you to treat them better and get closer to them.
When you’re teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, the pain and stress causes you to ramp up your efforts any way you can to make more money, which often results in financial prosperity.
Everyone wants to know how to not feel pain, but pain makes you grow! You need it!
What I’m saying is that trying to numb your pain entirely might be a bad idea.
That being said, if the pain is getting out of control, you should definitely take steps to minimize it. Here are a few techniques, starting with physical pain.
How to Not Feel Pain:
PHYSICAL PAIN:
1. Medication: Over-the-counter pain medications such as ibuprofen and acetaminophen can be effective in reducing mild to moderate pain. It’s important to follow the instructions on the label and not to exceed the recommended dosage. If your pain is severe, your doctor may prescribe stronger medications.
2. Ice and heat therapy: Applying ice or heat to the affected area can help to reduce pain and inflammation. Ice is typically used to reduce swelling and numb the area, while heat is used to relax muscles and improve blood flow.
3. Physical therapy: A physical therapist can help to create an exercise plan to help to strengthen muscles and improve range of motion, which can help to reduce pain.
4. Acupuncture: Acupuncture is an ancient Chinese medicine that involves the insertion of thin needles into specific points on the body. It is believed to help to balance the body’s energy and reduce pain.
5. Yoga and meditation: Yoga and meditation can help to reduce stress, which can in turn help to reduce pain. Yoga can also help to improve flexibility and strengthen muscles, which can help to reduce pain.
6. Mindfulness-based techniques: Mindfulness-based techniques such as mindfulness meditation, deep breathing, and progressive muscle relaxation can help to reduce pain by decreasing muscle tension and promoting relaxation.
7. Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS): Don’t let the name fool you; it sounds a lot scarier than it is. A TENS unit is a small device that delivers electrical impulses to the affected area. It can help to reduce pain and improve muscle function. A basic device costs around $30 to $50 dollars online, and believe me, it feels great. I use mine whenever my muscles get sore from working out, or when my back gets sore.
8. Illicit Drugs and Alcohol: Don’t do it. You’ll only wind up building a tolerance to whatever harmful substance you use, while destroying your body and making your problems worse.
9. Affirmations: Whatever your tolerance for pain is, you can make yourself tougher and minimize discomfort by programming yourself to endure. Think about it. Pain is very much subjective, even physical pain.
There are people who enjoy being swatted with a wooden cane, or whipped to the point of bleeding. That same person might despise banging their shin on the coffee table. It’s all about context and state of mind.
Affirmations can put you in a state of mind that enables you to handle pain, and even block it out, without the side-effects of some other methods. If you’re in physical pain right now, try reading these affirmations for 5 minutes straight and see how you feel.
Affirmations to Defeat
PHYSICAL Pain
- I’m tough, and I keep getting tougher everyday!
- Pain is useful. It makes me stronger!
- I’m a master at blocking out physical discomfort whenever I need to.
- I’ve got an extremely high tolerance for pain.
- I’m one of the strongest people I know!
- I can take a massive amount of pain without even flinching!
- Pain is just a sign that my body is healing!
- I’ve got the strength and endurance of a lion!
- Nothing phases me. I’m a pillar of strength!
- I see pain as a training tool to make me more resilient.
How to Not Feel Pain:
Physical pain is a complex issue.
What works for one person may not work for another. Try different things until you find what works for you.
It’s also important to remember that chronic pain can be a sign of a deeper issue. If it won’t go away, try to see a medical professional. They can detect if there’s a bigger problem going on.
Emotional Pain
As complicated as physical pain can be, emotional pain can be even more so.
You can’t numb it just by popping a pill (not without disastrous long-term results). The root cause must be discovered and dealt with.
Emotional pain is life itself telling you to stop whatever you’re doing, and work on your problems. It’s telling you to analyze your problems, correct them if possible, figure out what you can learn, then let them go.
This can be an excruciating process, but again, it’s part of life.
What is the cause of your emotional pain?
Rejection? Divorce? The loss of a loved one? Financial stress?
Were you physically or psychologically abused as a child? Have you experienced trauma in your adult life, due to assault, rape, or a severe betrayal?
Whatever it is, you can’t cover it up. You can’t ignore it.
U.S. soldiers in Vietnam were given Thorazine to numb the psychological trauma of daily combat. This practice enabled men to continue fighting despite the psychological trauma.
It also lead to horrible, violent explosions of PTSD once they came home – far worse than if they had been allowed home after the first signs of “shell shock.” (Fascinating article found here.)
Trauma must be dealt with, not suppressed by chemicals, or food, or any other addictive substances or behaviors. Here are some techniques that have worked for me in the past:
How to Not Feel Pain:
1. Re-interpret the experience.
Depending on the source of your trauma, it may help to re-interpret what happened in a slightly less painful, more palatable way.
If you’re recently divorced, stop saying it happened because “My ex is a no good, two-timing scumbag!” Stop saying, “Maybe I just wasn’t good enough for my ex, otherwise they wouldn’t have left.”
Instead, try saying “The two of us just weren’t right for each other. We tried, but in the end, splitting up was the best thing for both of us.”
Most interpretations have some grain of truth to them. How you feel is a result of which interpretation your choose to focus on. Find a good one, then repeat it to yourself so often it becomes habit.
How to Not Feel Pain:
2. Figure out what you can learn from it.
All events, especially painful ones, have something to teach us. There’s always something that can be learned. Finding it is the key to eliminating much of the pain that resulted.
By finding valuable lessons in everything, you will be enable to stop interpreting the experience as something that wrecked your life. You will be able to see it as a moment in time that helped you grow stronger and smarter – something that actually make your life better in the long-run.
How to Not Feel Pain:
3. Forgive
One of the trickiest things in the world to do is to forgive those who have traumatized us, and to forgive ourselves for allowing it to happen, or for traumatizing others.
Anger, the desire for vengeance, self-hatred – these are all habits of thought. To break out of them, affirm their opposite! Do it so often, the pain begins to slowly fade away. Again, the easiest way to do this is with affirmations.
Try watching this video. It contains all the thoughts you need to genuinely forgive, not just in words, but in your heart. That’s what has to happen for the pain to go away.
Just watch it for 5 minutes. If it makes you feel better, start watching it everyday. The more time you spend internalizing these thoughts, the better.
How to Not Feel Pain:
4. Develop a spirit of OPTIMISM and ENDURANCE!
This is tough because negative thoughts tend to be habitual. They pop into our heads automatically, with little or no prodding on our part. How do you stop them if you don’t have control over them in the first place?
The answer is simple: affirmations, which allow you to easily replace your old, negative thoughts with new habits of thoughts, ones that make your stronger instead of weaker.
You need general affirmations of optimism, which I can provide here, and you need affirmations about your unique situation, which you’ll have to write yourself.
Read your affirmations for 5 minutes a day, everyday, and I guarantee you’ll start to feel better.
Affirmations to Defeat
Emotional Pain
- Painful experiences make me stronger!
- I can endure anything that happens to me.
- Everything in life is an opportunity to learn!
- Tough times don’t last forever.
- I enjoy the ups and downs of life!
- Everything happens for a reason.
- Spiritual growth comes from suffering.
- Tough experiences make me smarter and wiser.
- No one ever said life would be easy, and I wouldn’t want it to be!
- I’m a fighter. I can get through anything, and I enjoy the struggle!
How to Not Feel Pain:
A little pain is good for you.
Always remember that pain is your teacher. Pain is your friend. Make your peace with it.
It’s prodding you to get to work on solving your problems – physical, emotional, financial, spiritual – so that you can live a better life.
Don’t ignore it.
Good luck!
-Tommy