Admiral James Stockdale spent over 7 years in a Vietnamese Prisoner of War camp, where he was tortured by having his legs crushed, his back broken and his shoulders torn from their sockets. And the thing that kept him going, by maintaining control over his own mind, was the philosophy of ancient Roman Stoic Epictetus. By putting everything in perspective was focusing on the the things he could control, and forgetting those he couldn’t, Epictetus writings taught him that happiness is reliant on us make a clear distinction between what is in our control and what’s not.
But he was tortured. For reals. 99% of the pain we experience in life in not even close to torture. We may experience trauma, but that often is completely unexpected and we are not ready for it at all. Nevertheless, most of the pain we feel is not life-threatening.
Most of ‘pain’ is just your body talking shit to your brain
When you’re in pain, your body’s letting your brain know that this kind of shit that’s going on at that moment is going to compromise being a living human if it keeps up. But (most of the time) it’s bullshit. If something is not life-threatening, with strength of mind you can take the reins over your body and tell the brain ‘Fuck that guy. He’s full of shit. We’re going to be fine.’
And anyway, the body is like some annoying melodramatic little kid who thinks every little thing is going to end in death. And thinking that can just perpetuate the pain too. And it’s dumb for two reasons. Most of the pain we feel does not put us in immediate risk of death, and we are already dying anyway. From the moment you’re born, you’re dying. So tell that annoying little bitch the body to shut the fuck up and focus on it’s job, that is, breathing, pumping blood and whatever the hell else that little pussy does.
Maybe it’s possible to overcome all pain sort of like this:
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Sidenote: I experimented with this approach yesterday when I went through with it and got these:
From this: