Pain is an awkward topic. It has differing connotations for different people. Yet we so often describe and make reference to it during our days. With the current weather, there is no end to the chattering all around me about the harshness of the temperature. Cheerful complaints, of sunny disposition. The best kind.
As humans, especially the British kind, we do love to talk of our discomforts! The gym I attend seems to be a breeding ground for discussions of injuries, stressors and strains. However, in this context it is in a proud war wound manner - solid evidence of the hard work each individual is putting themselves through to achieve their goals and aspirations in fitness, whatever they might be.
Is pain more bearable, with a dangling carrot of perceived positive outcome ahead of us? Does it hurt any less if we envisage it to lead to something we want or feel we need?
As a training dance artist - and one who started inadvisably late on - I put myself through a fair amount of tear inducing pain to achieve what was needed. There were days that the two inches I had left to get down to flat floor splits seemed impossible. But then I would all of a sudden drop a little lower, or stretch a little further, and my positivity would re-ignite just long enough to keep going. Perhaps I knew it might be worth it. Or perhaps I was just insane enough to persevere regardless. Perhaps just enough of each.
This accounts for physical pain. But what about the other kind? The kind that bandages or medication cannot rectify. The other kind.
As babies, we cry out at any discomfort. As children, we fall to the ground at a scraped knee or grazed elbow. But as 'grown-ups'? We are expected to be braver by now. Are we? When, as adults, we visit the doctor for a jab, we are offered coloured sweets no longer. We are expected to undergo the inflicted pain purely in the knowledge that it is good for us. Sound logic, despite the lack of smarties. Tattoos, similarly!
But emotional pain isn't - and cannot be - logical.
We all carry stories. You have yours. Some Disney esque, some more Grimm's fairy tales. I try to take every story I find myself a character of - wolf attached or otherwise - and keep working on the Liberty's concept until those stories can be brought together within it's walls. A childish logic perhaps. One that goes back to that basic sweets reward trick back at the doctors as a child when having injections inflicted - but one that I believe in.
Perhaps, in keeping with the Liberty's centre's namesake, we could offer 'Freedom Courses'; classes of varying kinds and creative vocation that focus on removing pain in any way possible. An extension of art psychotherapy, whereby the participant takes part in classes that teach them how to handle their experiences in ways that safeguard them, free them, or whatever is needed to help them overcome the hurdles they find. Negatives could be transposed into positives, stemming even from title alone;
'Freedom from Restriction" or, "Freedom of Expression" or, "Freedom to Move".
Sometimes pain overcomes us. Sometimes we overcome it. Sometimes our heads hurt, our bodies ache, our eyes sting, or our back's become unbearable. Sometimes we have to take deeper breaths than usual, to counteract the breath inexplicably taken from our chests in specific, sudden moments. You are not alone. Our stories will come together, yet.
Until then, treat yourself to some of the best ten minutes of your life, and watch the amazing story of Zach Sobiech. Upon viewing it, for once, I could come to no sentence that could describe how I feel about the artistry of living he represents. Even further drive towards the course structures I have described.
For any pain you may carry as you read this - keep taking breaths. One at a time. Until those breaths turn into hours. Then days. And when those days are behind, you will be a little freer. And by then, Liberty's will be well on it's way. It already is in fact - because you had the kind heart to read as far as this.
To the journey of 2014! Happy new year - may your year be full of everything you would like it to hold.
Helen
Victoria.
X
As humans, especially the British kind, we do love to talk of our discomforts! The gym I attend seems to be a breeding ground for discussions of injuries, stressors and strains. However, in this context it is in a proud war wound manner - solid evidence of the hard work each individual is putting themselves through to achieve their goals and aspirations in fitness, whatever they might be.
Is pain more bearable, with a dangling carrot of perceived positive outcome ahead of us? Does it hurt any less if we envisage it to lead to something we want or feel we need?
As a training dance artist - and one who started inadvisably late on - I put myself through a fair amount of tear inducing pain to achieve what was needed. There were days that the two inches I had left to get down to flat floor splits seemed impossible. But then I would all of a sudden drop a little lower, or stretch a little further, and my positivity would re-ignite just long enough to keep going. Perhaps I knew it might be worth it. Or perhaps I was just insane enough to persevere regardless. Perhaps just enough of each.
This accounts for physical pain. But what about the other kind? The kind that bandages or medication cannot rectify. The other kind.
As babies, we cry out at any discomfort. As children, we fall to the ground at a scraped knee or grazed elbow. But as 'grown-ups'? We are expected to be braver by now. Are we? When, as adults, we visit the doctor for a jab, we are offered coloured sweets no longer. We are expected to undergo the inflicted pain purely in the knowledge that it is good for us. Sound logic, despite the lack of smarties. Tattoos, similarly!
But emotional pain isn't - and cannot be - logical.
We all carry stories. You have yours. Some Disney esque, some more Grimm's fairy tales. I try to take every story I find myself a character of - wolf attached or otherwise - and keep working on the Liberty's concept until those stories can be brought together within it's walls. A childish logic perhaps. One that goes back to that basic sweets reward trick back at the doctors as a child when having injections inflicted - but one that I believe in.
Perhaps, in keeping with the Liberty's centre's namesake, we could offer 'Freedom Courses'; classes of varying kinds and creative vocation that focus on removing pain in any way possible. An extension of art psychotherapy, whereby the participant takes part in classes that teach them how to handle their experiences in ways that safeguard them, free them, or whatever is needed to help them overcome the hurdles they find. Negatives could be transposed into positives, stemming even from title alone;
'Freedom from Restriction" or, "Freedom of Expression" or, "Freedom to Move".
Until then, treat yourself to some of the best ten minutes of your life, and watch the amazing story of Zach Sobiech. Upon viewing it, for once, I could come to no sentence that could describe how I feel about the artistry of living he represents. Even further drive towards the course structures I have described.
To the journey of 2014! Happy new year - may your year be full of everything you would like it to hold.
Helen
Victoria.
X