Hi,
It's Brooks.
Thanks for joining me.
Today we're going to talk about pleasure and pain.
Basically that sometimes things feel good and sometimes they hurt.
And I think that sums up life.
Sometimes things feel good,
Sometimes they hurt.
And I like this.
I like this phrase.
It makes me feel so relaxed.
Because otherwise I feel like there's a lot of pressure to just feel good.
And feeling good is great.
And if I could feel good all the time,
Great.
But that's not my experience.
Sometimes I feel good and sometimes I hurt.
And it feels like it's a pendulum swing from one to the other.
I can be really happy,
Things are going good,
But then my stomach starts to hurt.
And then that bothers me.
But then that goes away.
And I start to feel good in general.
And then there's something I'm trying to do and it falls apart or something breaks.
And I get frustrated.
And that passes.
And someone says hi to me and I feel happy.
And it's this movement back and forth.
And I think it's a healthy way to live to have that expectation.
And I don't think having that expectation is going to make a person feel more pain or more pleasure.
I think they'll have the same amount of pain and pleasure.
But it does take that pressure off of trying to be constantly happy.
Just being in bliss all the time.
I've heard that before in spiritual circles.
Just being in bliss all the time.
And it'd be great.
If you could be in bliss all the time,
Sure.
But again,
Based on looking at life,
Life doesn't work that way.
Life moves from one end of perspective to another.
Life itself doesn't like to do the same thing over and over and over and over again.
I mean you know what that feeling is?
To do something that's repetitious,
You start to feel dull.
And I think life itself feels that way.
My sense is that life itself loves to experience all the experiences.
Because there's so many experiences out there.
And so sometimes things hurt and sometimes they feel good.
And just saying that I feel this relaxation down my back feels like,
Oh great.
I don't have to try to be perfect.
I don't have to try to be the happiest person in the world.
And the interesting thing about it is when I do feel pain because I'm not resisting it.
Because there's this feeling,
Oh yeah here's pain now.
That the pain's not that bad.
There's something about resisting pain.
This feeling of this pain shouldn't be happening.
I should just be feeling good.
This is wrong.
Seems to make the pain get larger.
Like it's pouring gasoline on a fire.
And so,
Okay,
Right now I hurt.
For instance right now my back hurts a little bit.
Like my mid-back.
Sometimes that happens.
And not all the time.
But I notice it when it happens because it's not all the time.
And there it is.
It's there in the middle of my back.
It kind of feels like a tension in the muscles.
But it's not that bad.
It's there.
It's kind of in the background.
And at some point that pain's going to go away.
And there'll be some feeling of relief that comes from that pain going away.
And that will be pleasure.
And that'll be nice for a moment.
And then there'll be some kind of pain.
Maybe I'll feel tired.
Maybe I'll feel hungry.
Maybe I'll cook something but it doesn't come out like I want it to come out.
And then I may have feeling some pain from that.
But then later on I'll start reading something and I'll enjoy what I'm reading.
So sometimes there's pain.
Sometimes there's pleasure.
And I still love saying that out loud.
There's something so wonderful about hearing that.
Hearing that,
You know.
And you know because sometimes there's pain and sometimes there's pleasure.
And there's freedom in that.
And the great thing is when there's pain there's a knowingness that it's not going to last forever.
Because I don't know about you but sometimes I've had this thought like,
Oh there's a bunch of pain.
I'm like,
Oh this is going to last forever.
And then that's like the gasoline on the fire.
It just makes it so much worse.
And the funny part is it's not true.
There's no pain that lasts forever.
Even chronic pain.
There's some point where there's a break in it.
And so there could be some pain like my back's bothering me.
But I know it's going to pass and then it won't be there anymore.
And so there's relief in that.
Just knowing that.
And at the same time there's this feeling like,
Oh if I'm having a good time,
If I'm really enjoying myself,
I treasure that because I know at some point that's going to fade out.
The event I'm doing that's given me pleasure,
Whatever experience I'm having that makes me feel good,
Eventually that's going to end.
And so that joy is temporary.
So I'll savor it.
Like candy.
I've got one piece of candy.
I put it in my mouth and I'm sucking on it and it's like,
Alright this is my only piece of candy.
So I'm going to savor it.
Because when I'm done with this piece of candy I'm not going to have any more candy.
So sometimes there's pain and sometimes there's pleasure.
And again I love hearing that out loud.
Anyway I appreciate you listening to me talk about this.
I get excited talking about certain things on Insight Timer.
And I love sharing them.
It's just an interesting way to share.
Like,
Here,
What do you think of this?
Why don't you try it out?
See if you like it too.
I happen to like it.
That's what I feel Insight Timer is for.
And if you like it,
Great.
And if it doesn't fit you,
Then there'll be something else coming along.
Because sometimes there's pleasure and sometimes there's pain.
So thank you for listening.
I really appreciate you.
And I wish you the best.
Take care.
