Emotional Disappearance

We tend to try to get away from pain or from conflicting feelings because we want to escape some emotion, some feeling.  It is why people overdo drink, medication, food, exercise, work, shopping or fantasy.  We want to feel better, or at least other than we now feel.  Painful or discomforting feelings are to be avoided.  Yet pain can be a great teacher if we can learn to stay with it.  If you had a broken arm, but felt no pain, you would do great damage by not seeing a doctor or ER.  Pain points to something that needs attention.  Think of pain as something we must all go through to become the best we can be.  Accomplished athletes, musicians, actors, doctors and so on, go through pain to get to where they want to be, to reach their goals.  If an athlete tries drugs, or "gets juiced," to avoid pain in training, they will suffer longterm consequences.  There are no shortcuts.  I call it the cross.