Desensitized to Pain: Recognizing and Breaking Harmful Patterns

The Accidental Sewing Incident

I'm a professional seamstress. I make and design wedding gowns, among other things. The other day I was vigorously working on a wedding gown. Due to making a deadline, I was working fast. The particular sewing I was doing required my hands to move freely near the sewing machine needle. Guess what I did. Yep, I sewed right into my pointer finger! I yelled an expletive and immediately pulled my hand away before the blood came out. I got up, cleaned it off, put a band-aid on it, made sure there was no blood and went back to sewing. Yes, the needle went past my nail and into my finger!

The Painful Reality

Look at that needle in this photo. Imagine that going into your finger. Ouch! It was extremely painful, yet I wasn't even mad. I wasn't even thinking about it a few minutes later. I had already moved on to what I needed to do next.

Becoming Desensitized to Pain

As someone who's been sewing professionally for many years, it is common to get scratches or cuts from scissors, needles, pins, and all the other sharp things we use. So much so that I often find scratches on my arms and hands that I don't even remember getting. I'm just used to it. I'm so used to it that I didn't even freak out, cry or make a big deal about that needle sewing into my finger. Sure, it hurt a lot, but I'm used to it.

When Numbness Becomes Normal

As I continued to sew, I began to think about how I went on as if it were nothing. How often in life do you ignore pain because you're "used to it"? How often do you become numb to the very thing that is causing damage and hurting you because it's so commonplace for you?

The Cycle of Accepted Harm

Why is it okay that he abuses you? The wounds heal, right? You're used to it. Why is it okay that they constantly talk down to you? It's no big deal. You're used to it. Right? Why do you keep getting into the same type of bad relationships? It's what you're used to. You don't even notice anymore.

Pain as a Warning System

This is all bad. It's bad when you've become desensitized to your own demise. When God created us He did a magnificent job! One of those things was creating a body that science will never stop trying to understand. In our bodies, generally speaking, we experience pain when something is wrong. If we didn't experience pain, we would likely never fix the problem. The same is often true with life. Our emotional pain is an indicator of other and usually deeper things.

Breaking Free from Harmful Patterns

That painful thing that you're used to, perhaps it's time to get UN-used to it. Don't keep allowing that thing or person to continue to do damage to you. There are many ways in which this subject you can apply this subject to yourself. I am not talking to everyone with this post, but I am talking to many of you.

Taking Control of Your Wellbeing

Start paying attention to your pain. That's the only way you can begin to deal with it and uproot the problem. Don't wallow in self-pity either. That's just as bad. Decide today that you're no longer going to allow or accept your mistreatment, abuse or put-downs as just something you live with. You really don't have to. Whether you do or not is not up to anyone but you.

Fatima Bey
International Speaker, Author & Founder of MindShift Universe

A MindShift Universe production

© 2019 Fatima Bey. All rights reserved.