Why does it *really* hurt?
If you have seen the movie, The Matrix, you may recall when Neo asks Morpheus, “Why do my eyes hurt?” And Morpheus replies, “Because you’ve never used them before.”
Oh, the profundity of that so impacts me. It can back to me today while I was getting a through butt kicking in a wicked class called, “Pump Iron.” (That name should be the first hint, right?)
We were doing overhead presses and I could hear admonitions of PT’s, doc’s and other well intended heath people echoing in my head, “BE CAREFUL!!! DON’T HURT YOUR SHOULDER!!!”
That’s when I remembered Morpheus’ reply. It hurts not because I never use my shoulders but rather because I’ve kept my self restricted out of fear of hurting myself. (People – quit treating your back like it’s made out of bone china instead of strength and a fabulously engineered biological miracle!) Or course it’s going to hurt like hell when I start doing a new workout routine.
We are so pain adverse in our culture. At the first twinge of discomfort, we reach for a pill, drink or other numbing behavior. We really short change ourselves when we do this.
That resistance to pain keeps us from living fully and becoming the people we are intended to become from the day we arrive on this planet.
Next time you feel a twinge of pain, either physically or mentally, get curious about it. Get suspicious about its true source and begin to look at things with new eyes.
And Neo is right – it will hurt. But it’s worth really seeing, isn’t it?
