Take All the Goods from All the Bads - Pain

This is part of a 2-part series. The second part to be released tomorrow. This is a straightforward thought about physical "Bad." Tomorrow's post will be about relationship and emotional "Bad."

I had a sore throat for about a half hour last week. I was pressing on my ear, scratching with my toungue, drinking water, and making weird sounds to relieve the overwhelming pain. During that time I felt so miserable. Probably mostly because I told myself that. Then, before even realizing it, it was over.

Pain, so often, is very temporary. After it's over, you can remember the pain, but it's not like it still hurts you. And in many situations, you can admit it wasn't so bad. I mean, there are some major things you go through that you would say you wouldn't want to do again (like getting teeth knocked out), but the pain itself wasn't that bad, it's just the healing and the uncomfortableness that you don't want to revisit.

I've changed my view of some things, and they're not so bad any more. Here are the two I can think of. Cold. I'll take the dogs out to pee late at night with my shirt off, when it's maybe 30-40 degrees F. If it's cold they'll try to get right back in the house so sometimes you have to keep throwing them out on the grass for maybe 1 or 2 minutes. Your feet can start really hurting (if they're bare), but the cold goes away in under 10 seconds once you get back inside. Skunks. They're not that bad. Just breathe it in. I mean I wouldn't want to lick one. But some people go crazy when they smell a skunk, and I believe it's mostly a trained reaction. And in some cases, so is shivering and letting your teeth chatter in the cold.

Anyway, when I'm going through unpleasant pain or experiences of any kind, I'd like to learn to ignore the bad feelings, or at least try not to react to the bad feeling. I wonder if that would help it to go away quicker, if I wasn't such a wuss about it. Headaches and sore throats seem to go away after you've stopped thinking about them. You know how it usually just suddenly occurs to you that it's gone, and it's been gone for you-don't-know-how-long?