Pain, I was thinking, is another emotion which like others has a very good reason for its subsistence. Being one of the ways in which our human self interacts with certain internal and external factors, pain has a very vital role to play in our game of existence. It is the signal our body receives to realize that there is something wrong somewhere and that it needs taking care of. It is also a teacher, a very good one I must add. The moment of pain is often combined with a sense of realization of the misstep. A lesson is taught that stays in us and changes us. You could repeat the mistake but now you are aware of the consequences. A very good teacher indeed.

We presume emotional pain is the one that is in the mind. It turns out that physical pain is also as much in the mind as its counterpart. In other words, our central nervous system and the brain have a lot to do with pain than meets the eye. Like most of our activities pain is also a sensation created by the brain, corresponding to the amount of damage our body or our emotional self has sustained. There are enzymes produced, signal sent back and forth, carrying a bit of worry molecules along as they go well with the sensations- you know the works.

 I started going deep into the pain topic after I read about cases  of ‘ghost pains’ in people. The condition where one feels nonexistent pain in certain areas of the body, like amputated limbs. This is due to a wiring malfunction in the brain which creates the sensation of pain when there is none. One of the ways to eliminate this is surgery. Surgery in the brain. Quite fascinating isn’t it?

I’m quite sure we were provided with the faculties to control this and distract our minds away from the ‘pain feeling’ but , sadly, like many other great inner mechanisms, we have comfortably let this one also slip away to make space for us to think about taxes, profits, security, future. It is a futile, endless list.

 A very easy alternative was in the offing too good to be resisted- PAINKILLERS.