In today’s blog post, I would like to discuss the topic of appreciating life without pain. Specifically, I think we should spend more time contemplating the gift of “not” being in pain on any given day. I don’t know about you, but I take my body for granted when it’s working well. “That’s what it’s supposed to do,” I think.
Let’s face it, we push ourselves pretty hard most of the time. Yet, instead of celebrating our body’s cooperation, we expect it to keep up – like our car. As long as I fill the gas tank and change the oil, I expect the vehicle to work when I need to, with no hiccups – The same with my body. I expect to avoid sickness and injury if I eat well and get enough sleep.
But then, when something goes wrong, I feel disappointed and frustrated. “I can’t believe my back went out – again! Now what am I going to do?”
Gratitude is Good For Our Health
An excellent antidote to feeling frustrated by life’s twists and turns is to nurture a habit of gratitude. Gratitude means thankfulness, derived from the Latin word gratus. It is a feeling of appreciation by a recipient of another person’s kindness, gifts, help, favors, or generosity.
First and foremost, being grateful is good for our health. Appreciating life without pain, like when we have a pain-free day, directs our focus onto the things going right. While it’s easy to take a pain-free day for granted, pausing to appreciate the feelings of comfort that come with such a day is liberating. Alternatively, when we are not practicing gratitude, we tend to focus on all the things going wrong in our life – and trust me, there will always be tons of negative stuff on which to focus. Life delivers a steady stream of problems.
Distract With Positive Thoughts
The human mind is designed to focus. So if we are not dwelling on the positive, our thoughts will naturally gravitate toward the negative:
- Who has wronged us?
- What’s not working right?
- Why don’t we have enough of this or too much of that?
But if we fill these “thought slots” with positives, we shield ourselves from the negativity.
In other words, if we are constantly thinking about our good health, the good health of our family, having enough food to eat, and having a decent place to live, then our brains won’t have time to turn to harmful thoughts. It’s like distracting a three-year-old when you’re trying to cut their hair – if they think about the shiny, red ball in their hands, they won’t notice the scissors.
Focus Our Appreciation
But, to effectively develop a practice of gratitude, we need a focus for our appreciation. Remember, gratitude means “feelings of appreciation by a recipient of another’s kindness, gifts, help, favors.” In other words, we need someone to thank. Thanking mother nature or an amorphous life force in the universe just doesn’t cut it because they are not people. Remember, gratitude requires a person on which to focus. By the same reasoning, it makes no sense to thank your body for staying healthy – your body is not a person either.
You may consider thanking your parents, but quite honestly, they just provided a tiny seed and egg to make you. The miracle that followed was way above their pay grade. So no, the focus of our gratitude should be on the actual creator of our mind, body, and spirit. And since appreciation requires a personal recipient, choosing God is both pragmatic and appropriate.
God is Personally Concerned
The Bible has hundreds of stories of God being personally concerned with people’s wellbeing. In fact, that’s the gist of the entire relationship between God and people. Two good examples from the book of Jeremiah come to mind. First, Jeremiah 29:11 says, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” In addition, Jeremiah 31:3 states, “The Lord appeared to him from far away. I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.”
There are hundreds of passages in the Bible describing God’s love for us. So, expressing gratitude to God for the good things happening in our lives is an excellent place to start. Give it a try. Start with appreciating life without pain – if you’re pain-free right now, give some praise to God, your creator. You will see that thanking God for the good things in life will not only feel good but will help you cope when faced with challenges. Remember, filling our “thought slots” with positive thoughts will distract our mind’s tendency towards negativity (distracting the baby with a shiny, red ball).
Appreciating Life Without Pain
To sum up,
- A day without pain is cause for celebration.
- To develop this awareness, we need to nurture an attitude of gratitude.
- But gratitude requires us to focus our appreciation on a person.
- Mother earth and cosmic life forces are neither real nor people. But God is both.
- Expressing appreciation to God for all the blessings in our lives distracts us from dwelling on bad circumstances.
So before I get lost feeling bitter about the stumbling blocks in my life, I need to remember and appreciate the many blessings all around me:
- My back doesn’t hurt today.
- My feet don’t ache when I walk.
- I have a family that loves me despite all of my shortcomings.
- I woke up this morning able to get up on my own two feet.
- The list goes on and on.
Celebrate Our Pain-Free Days
Our health is so much more important than the minor inconveniences of life. So when we’re feeling good physically, we ought to focus on this gift to help give us perspective. Appreciating life without pain is an excellent place to start. And focusing our gratitude on God is not only the appropriate response to the creator of the universe. It’s the pragmatic one as well, as it promotes happiness and contentment while shielding us from negativity and dispair.
Next Steps
At Raleigh Acupuncture, we attempt to focus on appreciating life without pain. It’s almost impossible to feel gratitude when we are in pain. That’s why we need to develop an attitude of gratitude on the days when we are feeling good. This habit will help us manage the pain-filled days.
To learn more about us, watch our welcome video, Meet The Practitioners
Learn about all the conditions we treat.
If you’d like to try acupuncture, click this BOOK NOW link to set up an appointment online.
Focus Keyphrase: Appreciating Life Without Pain
Photo by Tetyana Kovyrina: https://www.pexels.com/photo/person-sitting-on-cliff-raising-up-both-hands-1439087/
