Skip to content

Pain Quotes

    “Even if you’re surrounded by positive people, they will have ideas about who you are, what you’re good at, and how you should focus your energy.  That sh*t is just human nature, and if you try to break out of their box you’ll get some unsolicited advice that has a way of smothering your aspirations if you let it.  Often our people don’t mean any harm.  Nobody who cares about us actually wants us to get hurt.  They want us to be safe, comfortable, and happy, and not to have to stare at the floor in a dungeon sifting through shards of our broken dreams.  Too bad.  There’s a lot of potential in those moments of pain.  And if you figure out how to piece that picture back together, you’ll find a hell of a lot of power there too!” ~ David Goggins, Can’t Hurt Me

      “Going forward it became very important to me to rehash my life, because when you examine your experiences with a fine-toothed comb and see where your issues come from, you can find strength in enduring pain and abuse.  I realized that each episode of child abuse that could have killed me made me tough as hell and as sharp as a Samurai’s blade.” ~ David Goggins, Can’t Hurt Me

        “Research on emotional suppression shows that when emotions are pushed aside or ignored, they get stronger. Psychologists call this amplification. Like that delicious chocolate cake in the refrigerator, the more you try to ignore it, the greater its hold on you. You might think you’re in control of unwanted emotions when you ignore them, but in fact, they control you. Internal pain always comes out. Always. And who pays the price? We do. Our children, our colleagues, our communities.” ~ Susan David, Ph.D, Mindful

          “The unresolved pain of previous generations operates in families like an emotional debt.  We either face it or we leverage our children with it.  When a man stands up to depression, the site of his battle may be inside his own head, but the struggle he wages has repercussions far beyond him.  A man who transforms the internalized voice of contempt resists violence lying close to the heart of patriarchy itself.  Such a man serves as a breakwall.  The waves of pain that may have wreaked havoc across generations spill over him and lose their virulent force—sparing his children.  The ‘difficult repentance’ such a man undertakes protects those who follow him.  And his healing is a spiritual gift to those who came before.  The reclaimed lost boy such a man discovers—the unearthed emotional, creative part of him—may not be merely the child of his own youth, but the lost child of his father’s youth, or even of his father’s father.”  ~ Terrence Real, I Don’t Want To Talk About It

            “Research teaches us that the capacity to reach out to others for help in dealing with fear and pain is the best single remedy for emotional injury.  Whether the person is struggling with the effects of combat, rape, or childhood injury, the best predictor of trauma resolution is good social support.” ~ Terrence Real, I Don’t Want To Talk About It

              “I have lived a life of a lot of pain and I’m not pretending that I haven’t.  I’ve had to deal with death; I’ve had to deal with painful surgeries; I’ve had to deal with being alone and scared in the hospital.  But I have had a beautiful life—and one that I am so incredibly proud of.  And that is not in spite of having Cystic Fibrosis… That’s because of it.” ~ Claire Wineland (19), Zappos All Hands Meeting

                “Whether we’re talking about mental or physical effort, the first step to embracing the suck is to step up and face your fear of suffering.  We all share this fear, which stems from a deep-rooted need for certainty and security.  Pain is your body’s way of telling you that security is threatened because something is out of whack.  However, when you consistently experience the personal growth that accrues from deliberately putting yourself out of balance, such as with hard workouts, you begin to embrace that temporary pain for the rewards it brings.  The fear recedes into oblivion as you embrace the suck.” ~ Mark Divine, The Way of the Seal

                  “Comfort imprisons us in a low-grade fear of suffering.  We naturally shy from things that hurt, not understanding how much this pattern debilitates us and keeps us from experiencing life at its fullest.  We must define our comfort zone, and then get the heck out of it!” ~ Mark Divine, The Way of the Seal

                    “Don’t hope for a life with no pain; hope for a life with good pain. We all know that not everything that feels good is actually good. In the same way, not everything that feels painful is necessarily bad.” ~ LaRae Quy, Smart Brief