Well, the short answer is, no, not completely. However, in many cases you can lessen physical or emotional pain to a significant degree, maybe just making it much more tolerable so it does not interfere with you enjoying life.

Whether you are experiencing Physical Pain as a result of an injury, or Emotional Pain as a result of significant conflict in your personal life, it can be exhausting and mind numbing, especially if you dwell on what you are feeling. 

Of course, you should follow your physician’s and/or therapist’s recommendations in order to deal with the source to take as much control of your life as you can , but also consider how dwelling on what you are going through can intensify or magnify the pain. Once you have fully realized the source of your pain, and you have ‘developed a plan’ to deal with whatever the source is so that you can feel some control, I suggest you redirect your mental energy because the more you dwell, the more intense the pain can become. Negative thoughts and dwelling can be paralyzing, and again, create more pain.

As an example, what prompted the article was that I was experiencing significant pain running down my right hip and leg due to major surgery I had to go through a few years ago. I know that the source of the pain is not going to go away. So, I took an aspirin, but only one because of potential side-effects, and they have little effect. So I walked around and did some physical therapy exercises to stretch out the muscles a bit, but I caught myself thinking that I will have to live with this the rest of my life. Then I got angry and told myself to do exactly what I have done before, distract myself with something else, like write this article for my Blog at RuledByFear.com  and my Facebook Group, Ruled by Fear. The pain subsided !

Then I foolishly started sipping on a cup of coffee, and being a stimulant, I felt the pain again but at a lower level, so I wrote some more.

I know it will occur again, and I will take control the only way I can, by not focusing on the pain or negative thoughts and by throwing my mental energies on something that takes my mind away. It’s hard to concentrate on two things at once.

Gene Benedetto, Psychologist Emeritus, Coach

The Benhaven Group