Name: Dealing with Pain -Part 1
Start: 2025-11-05T17:00:00-08:00
End: 2025-11-05T18:30:00-08:00

Pain is not to be messed with. No one wants it. It’s awful to be in pain. It takes over our lives, and when we are in pain it is all we can focus on. Its origin can be from physical, emotional and/or spiritual events, but when we are affected by pain, our whole being is affected. In other words, physical pain can lead to emotional distress and emotional distress can lead to physical symptoms. Spiritual/moral challenges can cause us to be in physical and/or emotional pain. It’s all interconnected and generally we want to do whatever we can to be free of these painful and sometimes excruciating experiences.

This is a very complicated issue.

Sometimes the pain is so great that we just want to do anything to free ourselves and take whatever drugs we can, scream if we have to; that is, just anything to get relief.

Sometimes the pain is new and we have to deal with the painful life changes and new limitations that face us now.

Sometimes the pain is chronic and wakes us up day after day having to deal with the same limited choices where the pain of the chronicity can add to the original pain.

Sometimes the pain is from not feeling seen or heard or believed and that hurt and frustration can add to the original pain.

Sometimes the pain is from living in a world where we might have to compromise our ethics to not disturb others (members of our family, a boss, etc)

And pain comes in many flavors. For example:
There is the physical pain:
burning, throbbing, stabbing, gnawing, aching, cramping, stinging, piercing, sharp, shooting, sharp, dull, hot, nagging, wrenching , etc

There is emotional pain:
anguish, depression, grief, anxiety, heartbreak, torment, shame, regret, guilt, despair, mortification, etc

There is spiritual pain:
Spiritual distress, spiritual crisis, existential pain, a sense of loss, moral conflicts, conflicts between a person’s beliefs and their experiences, soul pain, etc.

And these lists don’t cover it all. Clearly this is a very complicated issue and we can spend weeks discussing this.

But viewing this from another perspective, is there a point to having pain? Why are we being screamed at to pay such attention to our pain? What is, if anything the value of pain?

We can say that pain is like the red light in our car. When we see the red light on our dashboard, it is an indication that something is wrong and we need to tend to it or we may cause serious damage to our vehicle.

So too with the pain. Like the red light in the car, pain actually serves several important functions. To name a few:
Pain can be our alert system that tells us that we need some help—either for us to take care of ourselves or to ask for outside help.

Pain can be our protective system, offering us clues to re-set our limits so that we see that what we are doing might be damaging and ideally pain can prompt us to change our behavior.

Pain can be our motivator to encourage us to move away from painful situations.

Research has shown over and over that it is not only how we deal with our pain but also how we hold our pain that affects our well being.

It is understandable that we can feel victimized by such distress. It is understandable that we feel disempowered and despairing.

Yet, when we can make peace with our situation, we can often lower the intensity of our discomfort. This is what I want to discuss—how can we make peace with our pain and become more empowered in our lives.

Let’s talk about it at the next session on November 5th from 5-6:30 PST

Zoom Link: *https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89494059358?pwd=y0pbzYvdtqVJBdI9S5CZwIKwCM4jTv.1*

Nicky Silver

Conscious Aging: Empowering Women to Live Fully Alive

Religion & Spirituality

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Grace Collins

Frances

Ann Munoz

Marie Whelan

Tracy OShea

Karen H

Dealing with Pain -Part 1

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Conscious Aging: Empowering Women to Live Fully Alive

Dealing with Pain -Part 1

Conscious Aging: Empowering Women to Live Fully Alive

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