The Blessing of Pain
Despite whom you are, at some point in your life you have heard the phrase beauty is pain. Your parent might have said those words when a pair of tweezers was used on your face for the first time or sitting in a chair anticipating the prick of a needle to pierce your ear. Because of how the world has shaped our minds, we tend to think that beauty is only pain when there is a physical reward as the outcome. For example, you wear a pair of shoes, and it rubs your heel raw however the shoes are pretty and new and a little expensive, so you bare the blisters and keep wearing them because you look good in them. It was painful to wear the shoes but because of the reward, to look beautiful in the shoes, you continued. In many cultures, past and present, you can see beauty is pain as an important part of their practices and values- not just physical pain but mental pain that leads to developing strength.
The beauty veiled behind mental anguish is not seen as clearly as the outcome of physical beauty. In the midst of experiencing deep affliction, it is hard to take a step back and see the silver lining. Losing a loved one, undergoing a horrible situation that leads to trauma, watching a friend battle with illness, seeing your parents handle a messy divorce- how is there beauty in this? Some people would argue that pain is a curse, however I believe pain to be a blessing. Pain is needed in our lives because it warns us, corrects us, and guides us. For example, two of my friends have had their appendixes ruptured. There were little to no signs that showed there was something going wrong in their body until one day, they experienced agonizing pain in their side. If they had not felt the sudden discomfort, the warning, the outcome would have been a lot different than getting their appendix removed and healing. Our bodies were created to feel pain for protection.
Without pain, we would go about our lives believing we do not need to grow and continue moving forward because nothing bad is happening to us; that is not me wishing bad things upon you, but humans tend to enjoy being comfortable and are strongly hesitant to step out of their comfort zones. Last year, I encountered what seemed to be the worst day of my life. I had a terrifying near-death experience with whom I almost lost three of my friends too, had to walk for hours in an unfamiliar big city late at night to find our hotel due to the near-death experience, and then I found out one of my other friends went into a coma and almost died. From that day, I gained a tremendous amount of anxiety and fear. However, I also gained a tremendous amount of strength and peace. Looking back on this experience, I see how it was a blessing in disguise and arguably one of the most important days of my life.
Was it traumatizing and horrible? Absolutely. Did it cause me to view life differently? Absolutely. The pain corrected my thought process. I no longer take time for granted in the way I used too; every moment is a gift. I learned the importance of being picky with who you share your time, while also using your time to be a blessing to others. I deeply learned the meaning of when I am weak, then I am strong. The pain also guided me. I would not be on the path of life I am on now if I weren’t faced to handle the effects of the experience, and for that I am grateful. I am not saying you must go through horrible experiences to have this realization, but I am saying without the pain, we would never learn the blessings on the other side of it. We all experience suffering, some less or more than others, but to know there is beauty amidst the pain makes working through it a little bit easier.
