Pain and Injury

There is a certain feeling about the pain you feel after a hard workout. You feel sore, you feel beat up and spent. Certain movements are difficult because your muscles are tight. This type of feeling is a reward for the effort you have spent. This type of feeling is pain. You can live with pain. Pain is inevitable in life. Things will be hard and you will not always feel completely 100 percent yourself. Pain leads to growth. Your muscles are being torn apart to grow bigger and stronger.

But there is a big difference between pain and injury. Injury is a physical inability to do something due to damage being done to your body. Injury stretches beyond the tightness you feel when you sit down after a leg day at the gym. Injury means you can’t do your normal day-to-day activities. Injury is a lasting consequence of a catastrophe that has occurred. Injuries are what takes you out of your routine. They make it so you have to recover longer than anticipated. They make it so you can’t do something, not “won’t” do something.

People confuse pain and injury. Far too often people say they cannot do something because they are in pain. They are too sore, they are too tired, they are too upset, so they can’t participate. Hiding behind this sense of pain does nothing but weaken your soul. Being in pain is different than being injured and people struggle to be honest with themselves about the difference. When people don’t want to do something hard they say they “can’t.” They say they are too “injured” to do something. The reality is they just “won’t.”

Knowing and accepting the difference between pain and injury requires you to be in tune with your body and honest with yourself. Know when you “can’t” and know when you are saying you “won’t.” Don’t let pain dictate your life, dictate how pain will exist in your life. Avoid injury and push through the pain.

The difference between pain and injury also spans beyond the physical world. Pain and injury occur mentally and that realm must also be paid attention to with the same level of detail. There are serious mental injuries that must be dealt with but there are also minor mental instances of pain that must not be blown out of proportion.

Be honest with yourself. Understand yourself. Learn to recognize the signs of pain and compare them to genuine injury. If you’re injured, focus on recovery and get back to being yourself. If you’re just in pain, recover and keep going. The pain will make you stronger if you don’t let it defeat you.