 Hi everybody. Alright, so in the last couple days I have been dealing with quite a bit of physical pain It's dental related and I You know last couple nights, which has been like when trying to go to sleep. It's just it's quite painful I'm gonna be getting a root canal tomorrow. It's funny to say this, but I can't wait to get a root canal Because otherwise, it's just quite a bit of pain right now. The pain is not strong I do feel some of it, but yesterday I dealt with quite a lot of it and the day before as well and You know, I noticed basically I was reacting it in these couple of days. I was reacting it in let's say two different ways One way is the normal Human or maybe conditioned way of dealing with pain, which is ow, ow, ow, ow, you know and like Expressing how painful it is and By and and by expressing it it will naturally our bodies have evolved obviously to avoid pain because pain Evolution has taught us that pain usually signals a deeper illness or trauma that needs to be Healed otherwise Your longevity is at stake your your life sometimes is at stake or some limb is at stake Organ something is wrong and you need to fix it. Otherwise you will have long-term Consequences and maybe death so because of millions of years of evolution of our bodies It's very normal and natural to catastrophize pain. Oh my god This thing hurts. So then it's easy to imagine the infection going into my end. Of course the dental industry and every medical industry has some some some of them make money obviously Make money by by of course helping people Like the root canal them when they're having but But I've had plenty of dentists in my life You know scared me about well You better take care of it because the infection could go into your bone and therefore could go into your body and you could kill you and Obviously it doesn't happen most of the time But it's it's it's true what they're saying is true and I'm sure there's a profit motive attached to it that it's hard to avoid so based on both evolution and You know commerce. It's easy to catastrophize pain and to imagine The long-term suffering that I might have or the death or the whatever and it's just it's all connected so subconsciously that when pain comes up it is easy to make a big deal out of it, of course and you know the painkiller industry of course wants you to Numb the pain as soon as possible. You should never feel any discomfort in your life it should be taken care of as soon as possible and I have over the past years have become less and less interested in taking drugs to Fix this or to soothe that I mean I do what I have to you know but When it comes to pain management particularly I try to avoid pain meds if possible Now when I get the root canal, I'm sure I'm gonna get the anesthetic because otherwise my natural body That's you know reactions is gonna make it hard for the for the dentist to you know to do her work But last couple days I did not take any pain meds Actually, that's not true one. I think two nights ago. It was gotten so bad. I was trying to sleep It was like 2 a.m. So I finally finally broke down and took the sample pain med that my dentist gave me and it didn't really help Maybe it did. Maybe I'm not sure but it didn't help right away, but I don't know last night It did the same thing. I was in pain laying down for an hour and a half Trying to go to bed try to you know bear it finally got up and you know getting up was helpful Anyway, so I managed my pain in in try to natural ways and then and then after that Those two-hour ordeal I was able to fall asleep and just fine So so maybe I didn't need the pain that the night before too, right so Let's talk about the spiritual message here the spiritual opportunity Because as I was telling you I was like these two ways of dealing with pain one way was to Ow-ow-ow and like you know make it a big deal and and imagine the the worst and therefore take the pain meds and and and You know it I feel like that first way the natural way causes more suffering like it causes more Emotional mental angst you might say whereas I've been practicing Last couple days when I am conscious enough to do so a second way of dealing with pain which is To understand first of all to believe to come back to my faith first of all and say well the body Of course is temporary and I don't know when it will expire I don't know when I'm meant to go to the next life and and it's going to be okay if I do like this kind of Trust that no matter what happens to the body. It's ultimately going to be okay And that even this experience of pain and of going through this problem so-called Was something I signed up for Was something that was designed now of course I signed up for this and I also signed up for the free will to choose This way or that way and take pain meds or not of course but I said okay, I signed up for this particular opportunity to to choose and And because I trust that no matter what happens to my body and be fine I'm going to be you know probably even better on the other side But of course I'm trying to prolong this life as long as possible for the for the precious opportunity of this life But I said okay, I started there with my faith to say it's going to be fine and secondly I I connected with my brain and say okay naturally this pain sensation is Leading to a natural catastrophizing of the situation. Oh what happens if I get them and and it also therefore Makes the pain So there's a there's a natural connection between pain and suffering but based on our evolution, right? Like you should suffer so that you don't you want to stop the suffering and therefore count ease the pain solve the problem But I said okay, what if I made the disconnect between the sensation and the suffering What if I given my faith Simply saw this because I know that the solution is coming. I'm getting a root canal tomorrow I couldn't do it last night or the day before because of the scheduling issues, right? So I'm getting I know it's I know the solution is coming. I just have to be patient I still have to deal with the pain until then and So I said what if I just saw this sensation this painful sensation as a sensation and Not have to connect it to the suffering part of it and That was very powerful and therefore I just said well, this is just another sensation of life There's many sensations in life and this is one of them and in fact in fact, what was interesting was It feels more alive to be in pain Than many other moments of life That are anesthetized Unesthetized based on the distractions of our life You know delicious food nice sensations social media Just going through the motions of day-to-day routines life can become very unlived Unfelt it can just be like weeks months years go by and I'm like that I live consciously Whereas with the pain it brought me back To the primacy of life Like I was very awake As a result of the pain Literally and metaphorically very awake to there's a very strong sensation here and How will I relate to it and how it how while I relate to life with the sensation and and also pain Kind of makes everything brings everything down to the basic level of You know, what's the purpose of my life? I started thinking about that like of course, you know With the pain I can I can either numb myself and anesthetize myself with things like pain medications or video games or You know just watching TV and doing nothing else like it was very easy for me to To just say well, I justify I justify all because I'm in pain. I get to do I get to Go with a lot of indulgences that I typically would be very much more disciplined about and Of course, I get it last night was an example where after an hour of laying in bed with strong pain Trying to do the meditation of Disconnecting it from suffering and just feeling into the reality of it and then the aliveness of this life the aliveness of this experience and and not also also part of the practice was to continually Bring divine love if possible into the moment, of course asking God for help, you know that part of pain part of the opportunity of pain the spiritual opportunity is That it brings us to our knees the stronger the pain the more it literally brings us to our knees in fetal position and You know praying for help Asking God to relieve us of this pain if possible if it is God's will If it is meant to be if it is if it is of the highest path for ourselves and for all for the all That we be relieved of this pain then Please do so. Maybe maybe part of the highest path is for us to sincerely ask and to reconnect again to the divine in a surrendering mode in a mode of trust in a mode of partnership with the divine and To therefore, you know ask for it if it is if it is thine will if it is I will thine will I will Be done and and then to imagine if it is I will be done and then to imagine the pain being healed which is part of the higher path of Spiritual Adepthood Adeptness is to is to mind over matter right like if like we can use Divine power to heal our pain if it is meant to be if it is for that moment meant for us to practice that and have that be effective and So last night as I was doing all that in bed for an hour literally it was like I looked at the clock that when the pain started and then our hour 15 minutes later I was still unable to sleep and still strong pain and and still doing the meditation but after a while of course my stamina ran out and stamina is a thing for Any kind of growth particularly you know spiritual growth included So then I got up. I you know, I put myself upright and played a video game for half an hour to try to distract my my pain and eventually it did help and you know my Looking away from it did help for it to to to go away But I think just time even if I had just sat in bed for another half hour probably would have gone away but I Lost the stamina and I had to go back to my crutch And so I see these things pain meds, you know doing whatever we need to do You know watching funny videos or whatever to distract ourselves. They are crutches You know to and crutches are sometimes needed obviously to be able to get around and so But when we so quickly go to the crutch when we so quickly try to numb numb the pain I realized that I would be losing an opportunity to feel more alive and To practice more surrendering and trust and to practice more mindful for matter to practice more embodying of divine love And the other thing that I realized when I was practicing all this was even the pain itself the sense a the strong sensation itself is love Because everything is made of love Everything is made of love even this sensation of pain is somehow Made of love like it could literally if I were if I had enough spiritual stamina If my spiritual muscles are strong enough, I could have transformed that feeling of I was starting to transform the feeling of pain into a feeling of love and I Am grateful that these past couple days have given me These practices these experiences of practice It was it was it has been a couple of some of the most spiritual days of my year thus far this pain and Compared to the time the several past months when there was no pain I haven't been as connected to divine Presence as When I was in pain, so I Hope I don't regret this, but I thank God for the pain. I'm grateful for the pain. I Deeply trust that whatever experience I meant to have I meant to have and that it is meant for my highest good and the highest good of all And may I continue to use Such experiences in the future. I'm sure as long as I'm alive as long as his body is going. I'm growing older there's going to be yet more experiences of painful sensations May I use every one of them? To grow a little stronger in my spiritual muscles to grow a little more capable with my spiritual stamina To keep practicing Yes to to to also do whatever needed to solve the body pain so I can extend this life extend my physical well-being but but again I come back to how It is just assumed in our society that you should never have any pain and when the pain starts you numb it right away And you you do the surgery you do whatever you need to do to get rid of the pain and and it's bad And you you know, you should you should be afraid of pain It's I'm I'm basically rebelling against that general cultural understanding of pain and to Because again the general culture understanding is that this body. This is the only life you live This is the only life you live And so you better the heck extend the life span and the health span for as long as possible And of course I get it from a spiritual perspective. I Believe that this is not the only life I live and in fact the life quote-unquote on the other side is way better than this life and this life is a game This life is a adventure. It's a very very intense adventure that I strapped on some avatar body And of my soul to you know My soul's inhabiting this avatar body to experience all this as a game as an adventure as a learning experience as A very intense one that other souls are are cheering me on and go my god You're really gonna go play the earth game. It's a lot of sensations a lot of painful ones Nothing like we you know, there's stuff we never experienced here on this side you know and and and and and therefore I should Treasure this opportunity and extend this game as long as I'm I'm meant to as long as I can and yet and yet and yet and yet The pain has brought me more spiritual aliveness than I have in a long time Weather and I look back, you know, the all the various videos I've made for this, you know this series When I've had emotional pain, it's brought me to my knees and to a greater connection with the divine than I had before and it's like every experience of pain has a tremendous gift and a and Very important experience for this life if if I if I would would simply be open to receiving that tremendous gift and growth opportunity that During the regular Pleasant sensations of routine life that I don't have as much of the spiritual aliveness or the or the peak experience Right, so this is one of those peak experiences peak sensation of pain But also peak spiritual experience if I am open to it. It gives it's like a doorway. It's a portal to a higher level and so Anyway, with that, I think that's all I'm gonna say. I I hope this is some Inspiration maybe even some comfort I hope if if you are dealing with pain or the next time you do and and the next time you do Maybe maybe you'll remember this and lean into the spiritual opportunity there and still fix your pain Of course do whatever you need to to physically get well again and yet while you're waiting to get well And while the pain is inevitable Lean into the spiritual aliveness there. Thanks for watching and I hope this is helpful somehow