“Got Pain” written by Rev. Pamelagrace Beatty

“If You’re Going Through Hell keep on going…”

There is a country western song by Rodney Atkins called “If you’re going through hell…keep on going!…’cause you may get out before the devil even knows you’re there” (O.K. I admit, I listen to country western music now and then). It sums up my thoughts on getting through the dark night of the soul. Don’t take up residence there! Don’t buy a washer and dryer, new rug, bedroom suite and make yourself comfortable! Yet, if we just try to bypass the pain, that won’t work either. Indications that we have repressed pain or fear, are when we find ourselves overreacting to something; getting far more angry or hurt than a situation calls for or crying at the drop of a hat. (I used to cry every time I saw an old lady in high top tennis shoes…what I didn’t realize is that I was crying because I was afraid that might one day be me!) That usually means we are actually reliving something that occurred in our lives in the past and we didn’t deal with it. So that reaction tells us there is work to be done.

Ask the Boogey Man what It wants

I used to have a recurring nightmare about a big scary monster trying to break down the door from the basement so it could get me! I would struggle in the dream to keep that door closed but the monster would always get it open and start reaching for me to drag me down the basement stairs into its lair! It was horrible. I mentioned this dream to a friend of mine who was a psychotherapist. He told me to “ask the boogey man what it wants”. I looked at him like he was crazy! “Oh yeah,” I said, “I am going to remember, in the middle of a nightmare, to ask the boogey man what he wants…sure”. But…the next time I had that nightmare I DID remember to ask the boogey man what he wanted and when I did, the monster shrank into a little blob and rolled back down the basement stairs and I have never had that nightmare again.

What’s the message?

One way to neutralize the monster of pain is to find out what it is trying to tell us. To do that, we do have to face it just like I did with the nightmare boogey man. We can use our reaction or pain to look within ourselves and see what pain button is still operating that we had forgotten or suppressed. Once we know this we can disconnect it. It is important when searching out the pain to be gentle with ourselves. Usually this pain or fear originated long ago, probably when we were children and probably nobody helped us through it (because if they had, we wouldn’t still be holding it within us). So being gentle as we examine the painful experience and being gentle as we tell ourselves “It’s all right to feel upset or scared about that original issue or incident” and then reminding ourselves that things are different now and we are more able to defend and protect ourselves can help heal that place within us that was still vulnerable..

Strength and Purpose

Once we figure out where the pain stems from, we can heal it by being purposeful in our thoughts and actions going forward. We can tell that small child inside that we are there to protect it and it need not worry anymore. Most importantly, we set an intention to keep it/ourselves safe to consistently do the highest and best for ourselves and all concerned. And, most importantly, we remember we are not alone. We all are surrounded by more people who love us than we acknowledge to ourselves. We also have a Divine Being that has our backs and Who is a Trump Card over all that occurs in our lives…and so it is.