Dealing with physical pain

Stoic techniques for handling physical pain

“When I first had a baby, it was so painful, I said, ‘never again.’ Since then, I had two more,” said my friend. I have also known people who were happy to get home with injuries sustained in a war, only to volunteer to return at the next opportunity.

Human beings can endure a lot of pain. People voluntarily subject themselves to pain—people opting to go to war, athletes training themselves under rigorous conditions, prisoners of war undergoing torture, people who inflict physical pain on themselves when in a devotional frenzy, and women going through childbirth. Paradoxically, when the pain is not voluntary, people avoid it as much as possible. Many people even avoid needles. Furniture and beds are often designed to minimize bodily discomfort. Yet the nature of our body is such, and the nature of human experience is such that we cannot completely avoid pain. But, Seneca warns us that fear of pain will prevent us from doing things worthy of human beings.

One who fears pain will never do anything worthy of a human being who is alive. - Seneca, Moral Letters, 96

So, what should we do?

The ancient Stoics, especially Seneca, had very specific ideas about the nature of pain and how to deal with it. Here are their suggestions for dealing with bodily pain.

1. Know that pain is manageable

Epicurus divided pain into two categories: sharp and chronic. Sharp pain does not last long. Chronic pain lingers but is generally not sharp, and we get used to it.

Pain does not last continuously in the flesh, but the acutest pain is there for a very short time, and even that which just exceeds the pleasure in the flesh does not continue for many days at once. But chronic illnesses permit a predominance of pleasure over pain in the flesh. - Epicurus, Principal Doctrines

Our dread of pain arises out of our fear that severe pains will last forever, and we can never get used to pain that is not severe if it lasts a long time. Both these assumptions are false.

Severe pains occur more frequently in the slender parts of our bodies, such as nerves, joints, and other narrow parts. Human beings cannot endure sharp pain for too long. Because of that, nature made it so sharp that the pains do not last long. Extreme pains are frequently interrupted. Eventually, they become numb and go away. This may be because our life force is stopped from following its natural course and loses its power to warn us by sending pain signals. Or it could be because the by-products of illness clog up our system, and as a result, numbness sets in.

As for pains that endure, at first, they cause problems. But pains that last for long periods lose their sharpness over time. Even severe pains at the beginning lose their sharpness as they pass by, and our bodies get used to long-term pain. So this is our consolation for severe pain: It doesn’t last long when it is too severe. Pains that last long become less severe as time goes on. Either way, the pain is manageable.

2. Do not add your opinion to the pain

There is a Buddhist saying,

Pain is inevitable; suffering optional

Suppose you cut yourself. There will be pain. You cannot avoid it. But you can add to your pain with thoughts such as, “This is terrible,” “Why did this happen to me?” or “I can’t stand it.” This is suffering. It multiplies the intensity of your pain. So, to keep your pain from intensifying, do not add your opinion to it.

I must die. Must I then die moaning too? I must be put in chains. Must I then also lament? I must be exiled; but is there anything to keep me from going with smiles and cheerfulness and contentment? - Epictetus, Discourses, 1.1

Pain is more bearable when you don’t add your opinion of it to create suffering.

Pain is slight if opinion has added nothing to it; in thinking it slight, you will make it slight. — Seneca, Moral Letters, 124

3. Don’t add memories and imagination to your pain

We have some pain in our body. We remember a similar pain from our past and how we suffered because of it. Even if our current pain is much less severe, we make it severe by recalling our past pain and imagining that the current situation is as bad as the one we experienced in the past.

We suffer more often in imagination than in reality. - Seneca, Moral Letters, 124

Sometimes, we also imagine that our pain will get worse in the future. This fear of future pain also adds to our suffering. Our prediction of future pain may never materialize, and we have added to our pain by our fear. Even if it were to come true, we suffer more because we start suffering before it worsens.

He suffers more than necessary, who suffers before it is necessary. - Seneca, Moral Letters, 124

4. Realize that pain does not affect your other faculties

Pain does not harm you in general. It does not disgrace you or degrade your intelligence. Even when in pain, you can act rationally and unselfishly. Even in pain, your supreme faculty—your rational mind—is unaffected.

In the case of every pain, have this thought at hand, that there is nothing wrong in this, nor does it make our governing intellect worse than it was, for neither in so far as it is rational nor in so far as it is concerned for the common good does pain cause it any harm. - Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 7.64

Pain is normal. It signals that something is not right with the body. It passes, especially if it is intense. If something is normal, why be bothered about it?

It's normal to feel pain in your hands and ... in your feet, if you're using your feet as feet and your hands as hands. And for a human being to feel stress is normal—if he's living a normal human life. - Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 6.33

5. Distract yourself

When we are in pain, we tend to focus on it, which makes the experience more severe. One strategy we can use is to distract ourselves so our attention is on something else rather than the pain.

Since pain does not affect your other faculties, you can cultivate them and derive pleasure from them. For example, if you are interested in music, art, or reading, when pain strikes, you can distract your mind from pain by listening to music, appreciating art, or reading a good book. Thus, you can lessen your physical pain by indulging in mental pleasures.

What lifts the mind up lifts up the body as well. - Seneca, Moral Letters, 78

You can also distract yourself with positive thoughts. As the old proverb goes,

I used to complain I had no shoes until I met a man who had no feet.

Do you have a headache? Aren’t you glad you have a head? Do you have a fever? Aren’t you glad you have blood circulating in your body?

Don't be overheard complaining... Not even to yourself." - Meditations, Book 8.9

6. Stand up to your pain

We give in to pain easily. When pain visits us, we tend to think, “It is too bad that I have to go through this.” Giving in to pain too easily makes it worse. If we view pain as having no great consequence, we are less likely to be bothered by it.

Your job is to wrestle bravely with the illness. If it can force you to do nothing, if it can charm you to do nothing, - Seneca, Moral Letters, 78

Takeaways

Contrary to popular belief, pain is bearable. Many people voluntarily endure significant pain.

• Acknowledge the manageability of pain.

• Avoid amplifying pain with negative thoughts. Don’t add your own opinions or imagine the worst-case scenario.

• Recognize that pain does not diminish your other faculties.

• Distract yourself with positive thoughts.

• Don’t succumb easily to pain. Stand up to it.

Try this simple exercise

Recall a time when you were bothered by bodily pain.

1. What was your experience? Did the pain eventually subside? Even if it didn’t completely disappear, did its intensity diminish? Did you recognize this at the time?

2. When you were experiencing pain, did you magnify it by imagining it would worsen? What might have happened if you had instead imagined that the pain would gradually subside?

3. Did you recall past painful experiences, thereby exacerbating the current discomfort? Did you imagine the pain would intensify?

4. Can you acknowledge that while uncomfortable, the pain did not significantly impact the essential aspects of your life?

5. Now, focus on positive thoughts. Observe how these thoughts, even momentarily, alleviate the intensity of the pain.

6. View pain as a challenge. Can you rise to the occasion?

Repeat this exercise with two or three other instances of past pain. Can you observe how, by challenging the pain, you regain a sense of control?

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