Progress through the Pain

“Pain prompts us to face who we are and where we are”

I recently heard this quote and it reminded me of all of the pain, struggle, and difficult times I have been through in my 45 years of life. Many times, the pain was caused by poor decisions I made, and many times the pain was caused by poor decisions others made towards me.

I don’t like to dwell on the past but if it were not for the past pains, struggles, and hardships I would not be the strong, carefree, passionate woman that I am today. Pain prompts us to face who we are… I became a single momma at the age of 18, childbirth was painful yet it produced the most amazing, extravagant love and bond between myself and my son, and the moment I laid eyes on him the pain was forgotten. There are other pains we experience, like trauma or the loss of a loved one, this pain isn’t so easily forgotten and for some can be debilitating.

I have experienced both. I have overcome so much in my life, domestic violence, sexual abuse, the loss of my mother, being taken advantage of and bullied by people I worked and served for in church, but I am still standing and when I look at the pain I have endured in my life I know it has caused me to be who I am. I can look in the mirror and say because of pain, I am stronger, because of pain, I am kinder, because of pain, I will make a positive difference in the lives of others, because of pain, I will do better. I am here, in this place in life, because I have overcome pain. And for the pain I have caused others throughout my life, I have learned from it, I have repented and asked for forgiveness, and have become a humbler person because of it. None of us are perfect, we will all cause pain at some point in our life’s and we will all experience it but to me, it is what you do in spite of it that truly matters.

Our son is a bodybuilder and often says, “pain is weakness leaving the body” I have never seen anyone push through pain harder than him, besides my mother who battled kidney disease for 15 years which is probably who he got his strength from, but when he is faced with pain he makes a choice, he chooses to push through it and when he does, he becomes physically, mentally and spiritually stronger. I get to witness this on a regular basis as his sport (bodybuilding) takes him through cycles, much like life, where he has a season of bulking, followed by a season of cutting, a season of strength building and a season of rest, we all go through pain and different seasons of life and honestly I do not think we will ever be pain-free till the day we die but in the meantime, allow pain in your life to catapult you to something or into someone better.

When faced with pain, struggles and challenges in your life don’t look at it as a setback, instead look at it for what it is, an opportunity to re-exam your life and to improve and strengthen who you are and your character. Look for the takeaway in the pain, what lesson can you learn and how can you help someone else in the future now that you have experienced what you are going through. Life is not solely about us, let’s take every opportunity to live a life of purpose even when we cannot control the outcome.

Choose to push & prevail through the pain.

You got this!

xoxo- Your Hype Girl