The causes and effects of pain.

Pain can come in all forms, directions, and weights.

The hardest part, for me, in times of pain is dealing with the physical effects of it.

When anxious, my throat closes up, and I become unstable, weak.

When sad, my body language drops, and my eyes become heavy.

When angry, my muscles tense and strain, becoming a headache or a stiff jaw (sometimes even muscle soreness if it is lasting).

When physically injured, we clearly will deal with those bruises, breaks, pinches, cuts.

When emotionally injured, many times this pain still gets to us physically.

As I age and continue to work through any pain or struggle in my life, I feel used to the emotions of it at this point.

They aren’t necessarily welcomed, but there is sort of a peace about having been through trial before and knowing that although our emotions are here now, these times will pass and we always make it through.

I never feel emotionally that any wall is too high to climb. Some are steeper and more painful than others to climb, but I have always found a way before, so I will make it through.

However, that physical pain is hard to ignore for me.

The raw, human feelings that affect our senses are real and affect every moment of our day.

If my head hurts, if my muscles ache, if my throat is sore, it takes time to heal from that.

As many of my reflective moments do, I first found this difficult to deal with on the golf course.

Golf, being more of a feel/finesse sport than others, we want our bodies to be in control and consistent.

I struggled with the emotional and mental part of the game at a younger age – putting pressure on myself, worrying about what others would think of my performance, letting my teammates down, etc.

Once I got over that hump, I figured all would be clear!

However, as I age (even at the younger age of 26), these physical pains that result from injury (whether literally physically injuring myself or the body’s reaction to strong emotion) take longer to heal/move past than they did when I was a kid.

So, I noticed that as mental/emotional anxiety on the golf course slowed, physical anxiety began to increase.

Losing feeling in the hands/arms, becoming dehydrated, shaky.

It affects the performance just as much as being in mental warfare.

As someone who tends to be emotionally-tuned often, it becomes even more difficult when both happen at once.

On or off the golf course, it can become an ugly moment.

The mindfulness comes in knowing it is just one moment.

The beauty of pain is that it is always for a moment.

I am always an optimistic man.

I feel pain and know that healing will come.

I feel sadness and know that a smile will come.

I feel anger and know that peace will come.

One of my fondest memories in my entire lifetime was also one of the worst days of my life.

It is funny to think of how we can look at a bad day so joyously, but I truly am so thankful that pain existed.

Why? Because it proves to me that even in those moments, I will make it.

I will learn things from it that will help me grow, become a better man, be prepared for the next pain.

The causes and effects of pain are heavy and prevalent, but the end result of all the pain we experience in this life, I believe to be good.

It sure doesn’t feel good, but it sure does us good in the end.

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1 “There is a light at the end of the tunnel.”

2 “I am glad you guys are in my corner.”

3 “Your feelings are human, buddy, it’s okay!”

4 “Thank you for sharing that with me and trusting me to share it with”

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“I believe a few words can change your day and your life.”

NS