Learn From Pain....

The common saying goes that surviving a tough experience will make you stronger, but it's understandable to question this age-old wisdom. When you're in the midst of life's challenges, it can be difficult to see any positive outcomes. However, not all changes that occur during painful experiences are negative.

Once you've navigated through the difficulties, you can begin to recognize the lessons that these trials taught you. For example, consider someone who has survived a hurricane. The next time they face a similar situation, they will handle it differently because they have learned from their past experience.

Why do people become wiser the second time around? It's because they've gained knowledge and insights from their previous encounters. While overcoming life's obstacles is never easy, these experiences can provide valuable opportunities for personal growth and development.

Life Lessons You Learn from Going Through Pain

Although people often dislike enduring difficult times, it's important to consider the benefits of these storms. Imagine if the sun shone every day - how would the flowers receive the necessary water to sustain their growth and beauty? Storms arrive to provide the essential nourishment for growth and improvement.

If you remain stuck in your pain and indulge in self-pity, you become a victim and miss out on opportunities to learn and grow. Instead, here are a few suggestions to help you cope with challenging situations and gain valuable insights:

1. You Learn from Your Mistakes

Experiencing pain can serve as a reminder that perfection is unattainable. As a human being, it's natural to make mistakes. When you do, it's tempting to give up and abandon your goals. However, it's possible to use your missteps and shortcomings as opportunities for growth.

Accepting your failures, learning from them, and continuing to work towards your objectives is essential. The number of times you stumble is irrelevant as long as you have the courage to get back up and keep moving forward. Your past mistakes do not dictate your future potential.

2. Boosted Resiliency Comes From Going Through Pain

Whether a tree is a towering oak or a small sapling in a devastating windstorm, only those that have learned to bend will survive. Similarly, enduring life's harsh storms builds resilience, enabling you to flex without breaking.

Psychology Today defines resilience as the ability to maintain personal and social stability despite adversity. Recognizing that everything, including your pain, is impermanent helps you bounce back and keep moving forward. This fundamental understanding is crucial for maintaining resilience in the face of life's challenges.

3. You Gain More Independence by Going Through Pain

During difficult times, it can feel like nobody truly understands what you're going through. While others may be supportive and empathetic, the journey is ultimately yours to navigate. However, these challenging moments can also provide opportunities for growth and self-discovery.

Painful experiences can lead you to recognize that there are many aspects of life beyond your control. Despite this, you have the power to shape your attitude and make choices that influence your future. Each time you overcome a difficulty, it increases your confidence and empowers you to face future challenges with greater resilience.

4. You Find Who Your Real Friends Are

It's a fact of life that everyone has a few fair-weather friends in their social circle. These individuals are quick to enjoy the benefits of your successes but are strangely absent when you face challenging circumstances.

However, these experiences also provide an opportunity to distinguish true friends from those who only show up when it's convenient for them. It's important to take this opportunity to evaluate your relationships and cut ties with unsupportive or toxic individuals. If someone isn't willing to stand by you through both good times and bad, they don't deserve a place in your inner circle.

5. Going Through Pain Helps You Start Listening to Your Body

Your body has a remarkable ability to send warning signals when something is amiss within. Those seemingly minor aches and pains could be indicative of a more serious underlying health issue.

However, it's also important to recognize that your body can alert you to potential mental or spiritual health concerns. Once you've experienced a health battle, you become more attuned to your body's signals and are better able to recognize when something is off.

6. The Healing Balm of Music

Music is a universal language that speaks to your body, mind, and spirit. The lyrics, rhythm, and harmony can soothe your wounded heart and bring joy to your soul. Listening to your favorite tunes can help you deal with your emotions and revitalize your willpower.

7. You Define Your Goals

Painful trials will quickly bring your focus to what’s most important to you. Sometimes, it’s the disappointments and temporary setbacks that allow you to see the big picture and define your goals. It helps cultivate patience, compassion, and self-care.

8. You’re An Example to Your Children

As a parent, it's natural to want to shield your children from the difficulties and disappointments of the adult world. However, it's important to remember that your children look up to you as an example of how to handle stress and challenging family issues.

If you turn to substance abuse as a form of self-medication, you're sending the wrong message to your children. Instead, it's crucial to demonstrate healthy coping skills and the importance of reaching out for help when needed. Show them that despite life's challenges, it's possible to overcome them and achieve your goals without resorting to harmful behaviors.

9. Going Through Pain Helps You Get Through Stress Easier

The things that you must deal with in life can paralyze you, and you let your feelings and emotions get the best of you. When you think of all the stress and anxiety you must face, you often don’t have the strength to get out of bed. However, it’s your choice how you respond to your stressors.

When these hurtful times come, you learn to manage your stress more effectively. These times of great hurt have a strange way of teaching you to handle the discomfort, but you know to manage the angst you feel.

10. Relationships Have New Meaning

In life, you have to manage multiple relationships simultaneously, including those with your spouse, family, friends, and colleagues. Although these people are crucial for your well-being, sometimes they can create unpleasant situations for you.

What occurs when you lose a loved one whom you held so dearly? While death is an inevitable part of life, the loss you experience goes beyond their physical absence. You also lose the shared dreams and aspirations for the future, which are now torn away from you.

Losing someone you love prompts you to reassess the people in your life. You realize the significance of meaningful relationships and start treating people differently. Grief and loss, whether through death or other types of pain, can change you in profound ways.

11. You Learn the Meaning of Unconditional Love

No one is at their best when they’re under pressure. You come home from a rough day at the office, and you’re cranky, tired and dare anyone to mess with you. How many times have you come home and take out your stress on the ones you love?

However, the people in your inner circle love you on the good and the bad days. They’ve seen you at your best and your worst, and they stay right by your side. Struggles teach you about unconditional love, and your loved ones are your anchor in times of storms.

12. Money Habits Change When You’re Going Through Pain

At times, losses can also be financial in nature, such as losing a job, experiencing bankruptcy, or facing other economic calamities. Surprisingly, such money problems can have a significant impact on your physical well-being.

In a 2006 groundbreaking discovery, Dr. Roger Henderson identified the money sickness syndrome, which has gained popularity in the United Kingdom and is now beginning to attract attention in the US. Your financial struggles can take a toll on your health.

However, being in a financial crisis can also teach you valuable lessons. After experiencing financial hardship, you learn to value each dollar you spend and become more mindful of your expenses. People who lived through The Great Depression, for instance, learned to be resourceful and thrifty with even the smallest things, as they had no other option.

13. Dogs Truly Are Human’s Best Friend

There’s lots of research that shows how valuable pets are to your health. Have you ever come home from a hard day, and your pet was so happy to see you? Pets love unconditionally, and they are indeed your best friend.

Animals can help lower your stress levels and boost your feel-good hormones. So, when you’re going through pain, pets are great to have around you.

14. Breaking Out of Your Normal Routine Is Helpful

Establishing routines can have both positive and negative effects. While having a schedule can be helpful, it can also lead to monotony and feeling stuck in a rut. Breaking away from the daily grind and trying new things can be therapeutic and beneficial.

There are times when you need to change your surroundings and stop dwelling in the same pain and sadness that seems unrelenting. Exploring new places can remind you that the world is much more vast and beautiful than your problems.

15. Appreciation for the Good Times Grows After Going Through Pain

Experiencing pain and trauma can help you to appreciate the good times even more. Although it's difficult to endure both good and bad days, without the rain, we wouldn't appreciate how beautiful the sunshine can be. By going through tough times, we learn to cherish the good times, and it reminds us that brighter days are ahead.

Final Thoughts

Going through pain is challenging, but there’s a glimmer of hope through it all. You must first acknowledge that the Universe is trying to teach you something, and second, you must embrace the storms. Have you ever heard that saying that you should dance in the rain?

Every day of your life, there’s the chance of heartbreak, sickness, loss, death, and change. Setbacks happen constantly, but as it states in Psalms 30:5, weeping only lasts but for the night, but joy will come in the morning. So hold on, embrace the storm, for it’s bringing wisdom and growth.