Pain not only has a “why” but also a “for what.”

- When I was young, I didn’t think about pain. As for many people, pain was an annoying hindrance to me, which I tried not to notice, and if it failed, then by any means to eliminate. Over the years, I have learned that pain has a cause. And he began to learn to find it, so that, having made a mistake once, he would not make a mistake again.

But one day I saw that pain has not only a why, but a why. I saw the meaning of pain. And it's not just a warning, a warning that I'm doing something wrong in my life. Through the pain, I have seen what is missing in my life, what my soul longs for, what my soul longs for. And I decided that I would not drown out the pain until I found something without which my future life would have no meaning.

- What happened when the meaning of pain was revealed to you?



- I lost someone I loved very much. And the pain of loss aroused in me not only the torment of remorse for all that I missed, misunderstood, disliked. Not just despair of being powerless to change things in the past. But the thirst of my soul is the thirst to love. And the desire to do something to satisfy her.

- But I never thought pain and soul thirst were linked before!

- To better understand this connection, let’s try to see it in our bodies. Tell me what is thirst?

- Thirst is the desire to drink, expressing the need for what a person can not live without.

- Why can’t people live without water?

- Because his body is basically water.

- Yes, water serves as a unifying, animating beginning. No wonder it is considered the material analogue of Life Energy (prana, qi), thanks to which our body is alive.

Antoine de Saint-Exupery once said, “Water, you have no taste, no color, no smell.” It is impossible to describe you, they enjoy you without knowing what you are! You are not necessary for life; you are life itself. You are the greatest wealth in the world.”

- It turns out that thirst encourages a person to periodically replenish the reserves of vital energy? But I do not understand how with such a reliable and logical connection “need for water – thirst – quenching of thirst” a person can not have enough water. We don't live in the desert!



- Is it possible that a person needs water and does not want to drink?

- Many people stop noticing their thirst.

- Sometimes. This paradox was convinced by scientists who found that many people whose blood tests clearly indicated a lack of water did not want to drink.

- Why were these people so thirsty when they needed water?

- The reason for this habit is a powerful silencer of the natural needs of our body. Imagine that the child, when he asked to drink, was offered not water, but various other drinks: lemonades, tea, coffee, which only mimic thirst quenching, but actually increase the need for water. Over the years, people get used to drinking only these drinks. And his body is forced to learn to survive in conditions of constant “drought”. As a result, people completely stop wanting to drink water. It turns out a vicious circle: the feeling of thirst disappears in response to false information that there is nowhere to get water because we do not drink it.

- How do you break this circle?

- The human body tries to do this with the help of pain, designed to attract the attention of the person and awaken in him a saving feeling of thirst. Of course, we are not talking about all types of pain (for example, this does not apply to pain caused by trauma or obvious damage to internal organs), but only about those whose causes are not obvious.

- Yeah, it's hard not to notice the pain. But she doesn't want to be tolerated. . .

- If you simply drown out pain with medication without even trying to understand the “message” it carries, this vicious circle will never be broken. Relief may be short-lived, and the supposedly defeated pain will return with renewed vigor and in a new place, since the situation of prolonged internal “drought” will remain unresolved. I am not asking you to tolerate pain and rule out conventional ways of alleviating it. I suggest you try to hear what your body is trying to tell a person. What if it's just asking for water?

- How do you learn to “hear” this message? How do you know that pain and thirst can be related?

- There is one proven way to start drinking water! At first, “forced”, not feeling thirsty in the usual sense of the word, as they drink medicine. Start the morning with a glass of water and drink water in small portions throughout the day. Especially do not spare water when there is pain, the cause of which is not obvious. This is easy because the water source is always at hand. Nothing special will happen at first. But over time, the body will become convinced that the threat of “drought” has passed, that there is now enough water. The place of pain will take a healthy feeling of thirst - a person will begin to want to drink. This will ensure that the natural and much-needed link between the need for water and its sizing is finally restored.

- Thank you, I understood the connection between pain and thirst for our bodies. Let's go back to the pain and the thirst for the soul.

- “Water is necessary for the heart,” said Antoine de Saint-Exupery. The soul of man also experiences thirst – thirst for Love, Wisdom, Light, Holy, thirst for God. It is this thirst that distinguishes man from animals. And in order to quench thirst, the soul must drink from the Source of the Meaning of its existence, which is the unifying principle through which man becomes Man.

- What is this Source?

- The source of Living Water is mentioned in myths, legends, sacred texts of different peoples. “Water, you are the source of all things and of all being,” says the Vedic tradition. “Water living grace is the Holy Spirit,” we meet in the New Testament. In Scandinavian myths, Odin finds wisdom by drinking from a wonderful spring flowing at the trunk of the world ash Yggdrasil. In Russian fairy tales sprinkling with live water from the spring brought the hero back to life. On the gold plates found in Cretan burials and attributed to Orphic tradition, it is written: “Fresh water rushes from the lake of Memory, and the guards guard it. Say to them, ‘I am a child of the Earth and the Starry Sky, but I am thirsty and die.’ “Give me the fresh water that flows from the Lake of Memory.” And the guards will give you a drink from the sacred spring, and after that you will reign among the other heroes.



- You said that the thirst for the soul is the hallmark of man. But I cannot say that all people feel this thirst and strive to quench it.

- Yes, many people do not notice the thirst that their soul feels. Remember, water is necessary for all people without exception, but not everyone wants to drink it.

- Do people not notice the thirst of their soul due to habits? Like in your example of a child who was taught to quench his thirst not with water, but with drinks in his family?

- Yeah. And gradually the child’s interest in water disappeared until it completely disappeared. The souls of children are also thirsty, but what do adults sometimes offer them?

- Computer, video, TV. .

- Growing up, a person already, as a rule, does not look for anything else, only lengthens the list of such “substitutes”.

- But his soul is still thirsty. And if the soul does not quench thirst, can it “dry”?

- Unfortunately, yes. The soul, which does not receive the water of life, ages as well as the body.

- The aging of the body is accompanied by its "drying" - a decrease in the content of water in it. What is the ageing of the soul?

- The aging of the soul is the loss of a person’s ability to dream and act with faith in the possibility of realizing his dream. The philosopher Jorge Ángel Livraga wrote: “Man does not age when the cells of his epithelium shrink, man grows old when his dreams shrink, when his hopes shrink.” But the soul actively resists premature aging.

- How?

- Trying to reach a person through pain.

- Which people want to get rid of as quickly as possible. . .

- Few people understand the meaning of mental pain. Mostly it is treated the same way as with the pain of the body. Only for help, doctors are treated less often and “treat” themselves more often, using a rich arsenal of “painkillers” and “medicines” that fill the inner void. Someone resorts to “help” drugs and alcohol, someone is looking for thrills, someone eats a lot, someone indiscriminately swallows books or sits for hours at the TV. But the trouble is that all these “medicines” are not only ineffective, but also dangerous.

- Why?

- Because, as in the case of painkillers, they bring only temporary relief. And then the pain and anguish of the soul flash with renewed vigor, and in order to suppress them, a person is looking for more and more powerful means. And over time, persistent attempts to silence your soul achieve their goal. The pain subsides, and the voice of the soul becomes quieter until it disappears completely. No, such a person does not die, but I can no longer call him alive.

Don't drown out the pain of the soul. It's our salvation. It is a guarantee that we are alive, that we are able to realize the thirst of the soul and seek the Source.

- Your words touch me, but I do not yet understand what exactly should I do if I feel pain, sadness, remorse? How do you realize your soul thirst? How and how to satisfy her? Where to find the Source?

- Let's go back to my example. Then, in the midst of intense pain, I decided not to drown it out, not to distract myself with empty reading and talking, not to wait in sad inaction until it was healed by inexorable time. I decided to accept the pain, read and try to understand the message that the soul tried to convey to me through the pain. And with merciless clarity revealed to me the depth of my imperfection - laziness, callousness, selfishness, conceit. But I found the strength to break out of the clutches of self-flagellation and to understand what I lacked in order not to be the way I saw myself. Through pain, I realized what I wanted: to learn to love, to be compassionate, to be kind and to find out who I really am. I saw that all these were manifestations of the true thirst of my soul: the thirst for the Holy One, the thirst for One who is far beyond my understanding, but without Whom my life has no meaning. I realized that in order to become who I decided to be, I had to take very concrete steps.

- Teaching yourself to drink water?

- Yeah. I began to look for what could become my “glass of water” in the morning, than I would drink my soul during the day and before going to bed. I remembered the words of Exupery: “If you want to learn to love, learn to pray, for prayer is unanswered.” And I began to learn to give thanks, the sun, nature, people, the One who gave me this life. I learned to listen to the voice of conscience and follow it. I began to learn to read and reflect, looking in my soul for a response to wise thoughts. I began to learn to see in everything that happens to me, the blessing of Destiny, helping me to go the planned way. I began to learn to control myself, so that the internal storms would not break the still very fragile and vulnerable sprout of love and compassion that cursed in my soul. I began to learn to water this sprout day in and day out, teaching myself to notice and respond to the pain of others.

I told you about my experience, you'll have yours. The road will be overcome by the walker. Go ahead! Destiny will tell you the steps.

F. Batmanghelidj. Water for health. 2004.

P.S. And remember, just changing our consumption – together we change the world!

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Source: www.manwb.ru/articles/psychology/inner_world/pain/