“It’s fear of fear you fear.
The fear itself hurts more than the thing you are scared of.”

– Darren Hardy, Editor of Success Magazine

I hurt my back while exercising. It was my first back injury–ever! I quickly discovered that the back is the structural foundation of our body. It affects all movement –standing, sitting, getting in and out of an automobile, getting in and out of bed!

The first night, I hurt so much, I rolled in and out of bed.

When you’re healthy – you take these everyday actions for granted.

[For chronic back suffers, I realize that none of this is new information. My apologies for stating the obvious. Be patient, I do have a point.]

Dance with the Stars

During this injury, I discovered a few insights about pain, avoidance, and fear. It got to the point where the only comfortable pose for me was laying on the floor. The problem was getting up. Initially, I would slowly move my body in such a way, thinking that would minimize or avoid the pain altogether. Imagine a long-drawn-out version of Dancing with the Stars.

My “dance routine” took me over 5 minutes to get up. Five minutes is 300 seconds. If I giddy-up, grimace, and go – it only takes 3 seconds.

It took me 100 times longer to act because of fear.

Have you taken 100 times longer to move because of fear?

Worse than that, have you never acted because you were afraid?

Power Through the Pain!

Point: When you are injured, there is no unique move to avoid pain! The best thing I could do was rapidly push through the pain, rather than to slowly try to circumvent it.

There are two ways to do anything:

1. Do it yourself. (DIY)
2. Get help from others who’ve done it before and can show you how to solve a problem faster.

Do-it-Yourself: Rather than going straight to a doctor, I decided to “man-up” and DIY-It: icepack, ibuprofen, and Icy Hot.

Get help! After two sleepless, painful days and nights, I finally decided to get help. My do-it-yourself approach did not work. Sound familiar? Finally, I go to the doctor. He told me what to expect – the first 48 hours are the worst. This doctor had suffered the same injury and could empathize with my condition. He gave me a two-part prescription.

Prescription of Prevention: His treatment addressed my present pain and prevention against future injuries. He prescribed a mild muscle relaxer, to be used sparingly to help me sleep and minimize my pain.

His best prescription was prevention. He recommended back exercises to both stretch and strengthen my back to prevent future injuries.

Why does this matter?

It’s been my experience, both with myself and observing others, many people organize their lives attempting to avoid pain. They move slowly, or not at all. Or worse, they try to self-medicate their emotional injuries by numbing their feelings through drinking, drugs, food, watching TV, social media, online, etc.,
“Pain is temporary. Suffering is voluntary.”
– Alan Weiss, Ph.D. 
Pain is temporary, both physical and emotional. It will not kill us. (I’m not talking about serious injuries or other issues outside the context of this article.) The quicker we go through it, the faster we put it behind us, the better off we will be – Pull the bandage off quickly!

Imagined Pain is Greater than Real Pain

Fear is not real. The symptoms of fear are real, such as sweaty and shaky hands, shortness of breath, rapid heart rate and more. The fear itself is not real. It’s made up in our minds. When I was on the floor and imagined how painful it would be to get up, the imagined pain lasted longer than the actual pain. I laid there negotiating with my body, thinking of everything I could do to get up and avoid hurting. I actually extended the pain rather than shortening it. However, Once I got it up, the physical pain lasted 3 seconds, and I moved on! Sometimes there is nothing you can do but giddy up, grimace, and go.

I hope you, too, have learned through my pain.

Now, it’s your turn. I’d love to hear the lessons you’ve learned by going through, rather than avoiding pain. What were your setbacks when you attempted to side-step something fearful?  What did you learn?

If you’re reading this in your email, you can reply and it will come directly to me. If you are reading this online, please leave your stories in the comments.

Sometimes you’ve got to Giddy Up, Grimace, and Go!

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