Emotaphor

Random thought while in the gym today. No double meaning, no sinister intent. Just a thought.

Emotional pain is a very close metaphor to physical pain.

See, what I was thinking today, while my arm was sort of hurting, was that with the technology we have today, we could make human bodies immune to pain.

But what good would that do? That would mean that a crazy psycho mutant scorpion thing was gnawing on our foot, and we wouldn't be able to feel it.

Physical pain is trying to warn us from doing something. Like sticking out hand into a festering pit of poisonous reptiles for instance, or attacking a nest of African bees.

Sometimes, however, we ignore this pain, or grit our teeth and get over it, because the end result outweighs the momentary pain. Like getting a tooth pulled out, or my dad fighting through the pain in his arm to work 10+ hours per day.

It's the same with emotional pain. Sort of. Like, you feel it, and you know that you should try and avoid the situation that caused it in the first place. Except with emotional pain, there are even less rational situations where you would be inclined to go back and take the pain again. And yet, somehow, it so often happens that we will take emotional pain again and again, whereas with physical pain, we eventually concede defeat. Like rejection, or being ignored. No matter how many times it hurts, most people keep plugging away at it.

Interesting. I don't know why that is, probably because I haven't studied the almighty mind-opening discipline of psychology, or something of that ilk. Seems like a worthwhile subject to take. But only if they talk about random things like this.

Word of the Day: Sighcology