Pain or Pain? – You Choose

Life is painful.   There, I said it.

Everyday we have some sort of pain that shows up:  emotional, physical, mental, something.  Consequently we spend much of our time running from pain.  We hire therapists, life and business coaches, or consultants to help us figure out how to get out of pain and stay there.  We self medicate with alcohol, food, tobacco, prescription drugs, sometimes even illegal drugs.  Coaching alone is over a billion dollar a year business. Add to that what people are spending on therapists, counselors, consultants and doctors and that’s a ton of money spent trying to get out of pain.  I can’t say I blame people.

The problem is we are looking in the wrong direction for relief or freedom.

Some of you know I do Crossfit.  Crossfit is, in my opinion, the most physically and mentally demanding fitness program in the world.   I have been an elite athlete for many years.  In my youth, I was a swimmer and good enough to earn a scholarship at an NCAA Division I school. After college I started playing women’s rugby and was at one point just a step away from the US National Team. Currently I can deadlift 355 pounds.  Swimming, rugby, deadlifts?  I know something about physically demanding.  I know something about pain. Swimming is one of the most physically and mentally demanding sports and to succeed requires some real fortitude. But those13 years facedown in a pool, and 20 years of knocking heads on the rugby pitch don’t hold a candle to the demands of Crossfit.

But this post is not about Crossfit, swimming, rugby or deadlifts.   It is about what I have learned from Crossfit.  From Crossfit I learned what true freedom really is.  We mistakenly think freedom is a life free of pain – pain about money, pain about relationships, pain about what is missing or what is happening in our lives.  But true freedom is not about any of that. YES, life is hard, it is painful.

True freedom is not a life void of pain, but the ability to choose your pain.

All the time, money and resources we spend trying move away from pain is really wasted energy.  Eliminating pain is impossible. In the excruciating physical and mental pain of Crossfit I have found true freedom: the ability to choose my pain.

Want freedom? Answer this:  What pain can you choose that will free you from the shackles of your pain?