If you could remove your pain, what would be left?

Basically a numb shell of a man, you need the bad shit in order to appreciate the good stuff. At least that’s one theory anyway.

Life is the awareness of pain.

I would erase my physical pain in a heartbeat, but not the memory of it. The memory of physical pain would make me really appreciate being well enough to enjoy my body’s abilities. Before I was in pain on a daily basis, I pretty much took it all for granted. I would probably push myself physically more, now, too. Maybe take up rock climbing or something.

Emotional pain seems necessary to growth, I think. I might minimize the number of times I had to experience it, but I don’t think I’d want to do without it altogether. I honestly can’t imagine the person I’d be if I hadn’t gone through the turmoil in my life.

I agree with @augustlan . My emotions, my pain, my joys, I need them to grow as a person. Losing them and the capability of feeling them would maim me for life. Apart from being a student of psychology, I am a theater artist, I thrive in emotion. I see the world through them, I sing with the intensity they provide. Without them, I would not be me. I would just be a living thing. Not me.

I can not image a person without emotions. These are the differences between human and other animals.

I think it would be very odd, but rather peaceful. I cannot imagine.

Sorrow found me when I was young.
Sorrow waited. Sorrow won.

A keg.

not a joke. we clowns are the saddest ones of all.

I would run.

A bit off tongue and a bloody mess.

If dental anesthesia were permanent.

Pain can be a blessing.

This is difficult to answer. I suffered about 8 years with very bad chronic pain that negatively impacted my life in a big way. However, the pain was caused by illness, not a car accident or something similar, and the pain kept me going to pursue trying to cure the underlying problem. I do believe the illness has the potential to shorten my life. At this point the pain is sigificantly reduced, I am free of pain most days, and itis truly magical. Life is better without the pain. The pain was like a prison, I felt not free during those years, not free in mind, body, or spirit. Now, I still have shit to deal with regarding this ongoing chronic ordeal, but with less pain I can live in long days of denial, and feel the bliss in life. I have earned a lot from the journey with illness, but I would not for one second say it was worth being sick.

Emotional pain. Well, if totally void of emotional pain, I guess the worst thing to me would be losing our empathy for others. Some of the worst emotional pain I have been through I really could have done without. Yes, I grew from it, but that too, I would have been better off not being in the pain I went through. It ruined my college GPA because I was not functioning well. In anothet case it made me afraid when I should have moved forward. Dwelling in sorrow or anxiety does not seem to be very productive. But, a complete absence of pain, I don’t know if I would wish for it. I think if I could still hold onto my compassion and value I put on relationships and life, then I would be ok giving up the pain.

Erase all the pain? I would do that for a year.
No more pms? How will I ever live? ;)

Despite what I have said earlier, it would be nice not to feel what I’m feeling now.

Practically- I would have to be a lot more careful. Pain is often a warning sign, e.g. to snatch your hand away from the stove; etc; to not put up with certain damaging relationships, etc.

On the other hand, it may be that I would take more risks. I don’t know… it’s so difficult to imagine a life without pain… I presume that most of our fear stems from pain…

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I also once had an experience while doing sitting meditation, when my leg cramped up.
It made me realise that there were two things going on: what I was physically feeling (pain/sensation); and how I was judging the sensation (hurt/painful). And I realised that these two things can be separate; and that when I could just see the sensation as it is; or experience it as it is, then the whole thing became a lot less painful.

HMM… If you remove my pain and sorrow, you would have to remove many memories.
I have learned by those and without those I would be vulnerable again.
I will keep them as I have my health and have no physical pain or scars.

I would start fighting crime.

As tempting an offer that is, I think we all need at least some amount of pain in our lives. One of the coolest things I heard about pain recently was from our Wednesday night bible study – “Pain doesn’t have to just hurt”.

Thank you all for your posts, some more personal or more general. I don’t, however, think many really answered my question which is all about the details. Perhaps I didn’t word it well: Magically, all your pain and sorrow, physical and emotional, disappears; what are you left with? How do you feel and how would it affect the rest of your life?

But it doesn’t matter. Thanks for answering.

I think it would instantly start all over. You might not have the old sorrows, but very soon, new ones would take their places. Our pains are relative to where we are. If the problems are solved, the bar moves up, and you’ve got a whole new set of problems.

What are you left with? A bar of minimum expectations that is higher than the old one. How would it affect the rest of your life? You’d be wealthier and healthier and more capable than you used to be, but that would no longer be enough. You’d just want more stuff and more capabilities if all your current problems went away. Almost instantly, you’d have the same level of problems as you used to.

The concept of a problem is a moving target. It all depends on what we focus on. For one person, not having a car is a very big deal. For another, they don’t even notice. For one person, cancer is something to battle. For another, it’s just a part of life that leads to death. Something will kill you. Cancer is as good as anything else.

^ Lurve your answer.

Ta, luv.

I have never been in chronic physical pain, so have to think about this from the emotional side. If I no longer had anything to worry about, I can’t even imagine it. I would probably make up stuff to worry about and invent problems.

Bliss and some temporary confusion, I’m sure.

@seazen_ Is the memory gone too? The pain, sorrow, and the memory?

If all my emotional pain would vanish I think I’d be more outgoing, want to travel quite a bit, call my family up a lot more often, laugh more, shop like I used to and simply love being alive.

As far as my physical pain it would be wonderful and I cannot see a down side, even if my memory is gone regarding the health issues. I believe I would be my old self, which would be who I am supposed to be in my mind.

Regarding emotional pain, if I lose my memory with the pain, I would probably be a little less empathetic than I am now. I also would have less fear of going through emotional pain, of being hurt. I think I would be braver, more cavalier in life if I did not have past pain. Overall it might be better in a selfish sense. I guess at its extreme it is how sociopaths operate. Or, narcissists. But, I don’t think I would ever be a sociopath, even before I was aware of how big emotionl pain can be, I never wanted to hurt anyone, I always cared about others, and tried to put myself in their place.

I think I’d be a much happier, lighter person.

Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen
Nobody knows my sorrow…

You need the lows to appreciate the highs. I could have done without the last couple years of pain, but I’m looking forward to things getting better again.

I don’t know or care how I’d be without emotional pain, but if I could have my body back, my life would change dramatically. I’d be back at work, I’d have the feeling good about helping people, the camaraderie, be upgrading my house, so many things that I grieve for now. EDIT So, what would be left would be a funtioning person in society instead of a parasite. My emotional state would be better without constant physical pain. But without memories of my past pain, I assume I’d be more selfish, though if I was working, I’d soon be empathetic again and feel others pain.

I think @wundayatta really hit the nail on the head! GA for sure. It is a human condition to agonize and obsess and strive, the only difference from one individual to the next is degree.

I heard a guy say once he didn’t make mistakes, he had lessons, he learned from everything he did and it all contributed to make him who he was. In view of that I’ll keep my baggage, it’s made me, well, me! I don’t want to start collecting all over again especially without the benefit of the lessons I’ve learned along the way.

So to answer the question, what or who would be left would be some stranger, an adult infant off to learn how to walk all over again.

GQ too

My passion for horror movies I guess. Not too bad a deal haha.

I really had experienced that feelings once and I can say that when you tried everything in life;going out, drinking alcohool, hanging out with friends, driving fast, falling in love, sports….you fell like you have to try something else and that’s what happened with me when I found out that “all my pain and sorrow,physical and emotional” have disappeared when i decided to become religious and living my life without mixing with people. For a while it has been a good feeling to experience lonely and think deeply. I realized that all my fears, my anger, my pain, my hate, my bad thoughts have gone because I began to beleive that God protects me from all of these. Until one day I asked myself a question: “what am I doing in this life?” It was like I am waiting for my death! It is not wrong or bad to beleive and being religious absolutely not, but how would I spend the rest of my life without taking a risk?without being adventurous?without falling in love?
Let me tell you that everything in life:family, work, relationship, friendship, love….everything is hard and difficult i admit, but also BEAUTIFUL and we can not live without this beautiful pain.That’s the secret of life!