Excessive exercise, alcohol, drugs, food, sex, work or boxsets… Humans are masters of doing their best to avoid (emotional) pain. Whilst a temporary solution, avoidance only serves to make emotional problems worse over the longer term.
Anyone who engages in exercise will know that pain is par for the course. Yet there are ‘good’ pains and ‘bad’ pains - the former helping you improve, the latter signs of injury.
So how do we tell the difference? Through exercise experience and tuning into our bodies.
The same goes for emotional pain. Unless we feel it, we won’t understand more about its causes and how to change. In the poet Rumi’s words "the cure for pain is in the pain".
And remember, pain always passes.
Dr Libby Watson is a Chartered Clinical Psychologist in the UK, offering psychological therapy through www.tri-psychology.co.uk
Tri-Psychology could help you gain a better understand your emotions; identify and challenge unhelpful thinking and behaviour; offer alternatives to restricted patterns of relating to others (and yourself), and foster increased self-compassion and acceptance in your life.
Hear more from Libby:
