7. Pain of the Mind is worse than the Pain of the Body.

Pain is a unpleasant feeling experienced both physically and mentally by an individual. Once we understand how our mind behaves to pain we can avoid unintentionally maximizing the pain and intentionally minimize it and make our self more comfortable. If we observe some people are better at handling pain than others, how is it possible????

Research says that some people are more sensitive to pain than others and also state that how much the pain hurts actually is in once own mind. They say a patient who has optimistic thinking is more effective than any powerful painkiller in relieving pain. At the onset, if pain is in physical realm, and if we take medication to ease it and still can't get rid of the pain then it may be more mental than physical. This pain consumes us and takes toll on the tranquility in us. Pain is such an uncomfortable feeling that even a tiny amount of it is enough to ruin every enjoyment in life. The trick here may be to keep ourselves busy with some other thing and try to divert the attention of our mind. It can be mental or physical diversion or a combination of both. 

Meditation for a short period of time or walk in the beautiful garden or watching an exciting program can possibly help keep our mind off the pain. It may be surprising to know that the effect of the pain is not as bad as they were, if we have displaced its presence in our life.

There is a story of a princess who had a sore eye problem and she felt irresistible to scratch the eye. Being a princess, she was a spoiled brat and was lamenting all the time. She would not let the royal doctors to attend her or to apply medicine; she would invariably refuse any treatment and kept on scratching the sore spot on her eye. In this way it became worse and worse, until finally the king proclaimed a large reward for whoever could cure his daughter. After some days, a man arrived to the palace and claimed to be a famous physician, but actually he knew nothing about medical science.

He affirmed that he could certainly cure the princess and hence was taken to her chamber. After he had examined her for about an hour, he exclaimed, “Oh, I'm so sorry!”

“What is it?” the princess inquired.

The man said, “There is nothing much to worry about your eye, but there is something else that is really serious to be attended.”

The princess was anxious and asked, “What is it that is so serious to be worried?”

He hesitated and said, “It is really bad. I shouldn't tell you about it.” 

No matter how much she persisted, he declined to tell her, saying that he could only talk at the presence of the king.

When the king arrived, the man was still unwilling to disclose his findings. Finally the king commanded, “Tell us what is wrong. Whatever it is, you have to tell us!” 

At last he said, “Well, the problem of the eye is very insignificant. That is not at all a problem. The big problem is that the princess will grow a tail, which will become at least nine feet long. It may start growing any time. If it has to be treated the princess has to detect the first moment it appears, and then I might be able to prevent it from growing further.” 

At this news everyone was deeply concerned. And the princess, what did she do? She stayed in bed, all day and night, focusing all her attention to detecting when and where the tail might appear. Thus, she forgot about the sore eye and did not scratch the eye and so after a few days, her eye was cured.

 
This is how we usually react to pain or problems in our life. We focus on those little pain and problem and it becomes the center around which everything else revolves. This kind of attention never let the pain or problem to relieve or resolve. Pain and problems can’t affect us unless we let them.