Chronic Pain Support Group

Physicians and professionalsdefine pain as chronic if it lasts longer than three to six months and is persistent. It's distinct from acute pain that is a direct result of injury or trauma. This support group is dedicated to those suffering from chronic pain. Discuss treatments that have worked for you, find advice for your specific experience, and find support. You're not...

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Brain & Nervous System
/ Chronic Pain Support Group

COURAGE

Blessedx2
Blessedx2
"What is courage? What defines a courageous act? It is said that the brave and cowardly person are both fearful. However, it is the brave one who faces his fear and does what needs to be done. We will be faced with many things that scare us throughout our lives. How can we become the kind of people that face our fear and do it anyway? Human growth takes place when we take small steps. Each time we face our fears we become more of the courageous person that we would like to be."

~Author unknown

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I came across this on the internet and really liked it....thought it fits really well with CP'ers. Like it states above....we have to take small steps, especially dealing with CP. That's what I try to do because I have learned how to live with my own limitations. We have to learn how to slow down and listen to our bodies. I try to face my fears head on, but it isn't easy. I always fear that I won't be able to do something, but I guess in that case, I come back around to taking small steps....one day at a time... and do my best to push through the pain. I guess I consider myself courageous for all that I go through, but would like to hear your thoughts on this. Do you consider yourself courageous? What does courageous mean to you?

Hugs to all,

~Carrie
deleted_user
deleted_user
I definately think you are courageous, Carrie, your truly inspirational. Me well now i come to think about it, yes i do have courage, one is getting out of bed each day, when in pain, two is leaving the house, knowing its the right thing for me, when it would be easier to stay home, three meeting up with friends if only for a little while, when my bodys screaming to lie down, i hope this dosent sound all me,me,me, i know there are many people who have incredible courage, but its the little things in life that are mountains to climb for some of us. Thankyou for
helping me see things more clearly, love susie xx
AmaSun
AmaSun
I love this topic.

Courage, to me, comes from the heart. In French, it is close to the word "coeur" for heart.

Courage is following your heart when everything screams for you to do otherwise. Often, that means going against the trend. It takes courage to NOT do something. It takes courage to keep your tongue and not lash out. It takes courage to be who you are in a society where everyone tries so hard to belong and be part of the group.

Courage is the result of fearlessness, where fearlessness means embracing your fear and dissolving it.

Therefore, courage comes from experiencing fear.

Thanks, Carrie, for this post!
Ama
deleted_user
deleted_user
To me courage is being afraid of doing the right thing but doing it anyway. Or it can just be when your affraid of anything and go on ahead and do what you were terrified to do. I don't think you can have courage without having fear. It's hard to be couragous when you weren't affaid in the first place. .... It's kind of like a person who jumps into a shallow pond full of aligators to save a drowning child. The person walks out to the middle of the pond, grabs the child and brings them back to safty never feeling that the alagators just under the surface were ever a danger to them. If you have the exact same situation, and a person does the same thing but the person not only understands the danger of the alagators but has a phobia of them did they both exhibit courage? They both did the exact same thing. The only difference was the frame of mind of the two people.

But to answer the other question of do I consider myself courageous..... I don't feel that I am really at all. I know me pretty well, and before I let God in, I was a pretty huge coward. Any Courage I have is all God. Even with God giving me the strength and courage to do things I wouldn't think possible, it's still feel that I need to work on my courage. For me to have courage is to have absolute faith no matter the circumstances in my life.
Seekn1
Seekn1
Wonderful post Carrie....
Thank you for sharing.... everyone here is "Courage"
Huge hugs.....
Blessedx2
Blessedx2
Thank you susie, AmaSun, ddscarb & Seekn1 for responding. Every one of you are more courageous than you realize, epecially living with pain the way you do day in and day out. I agree with ddscarb that we have to feel fear in order to be courageous, however, I think living with chronic pain automatically brings many fears to the forefront. There are so many things that we fear we may not be able to tackle, things we simply cannot do, however, we need to have the courage to take each day as it comes... take one step, then another, then another, no matter how small, because we will eventually get to where we are going & achieve what might have been thought as otherwise iimpossible. It might just take a little longer. With a little courage, we can do it!

Hugs to all & God Bless!

Carrie