Pain Is the Perfect Teacher- The Growth You Didn’t Ask For…But Needed

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This is the Beyond the Story podcast, a show that goes way beyond the story. And now, Sebastian Rusk Pain is the perfect teacher. Pain Ever think about that? It always shows up when you need it the most, even when you do not want it. The problem is most people try and escape pain instead of learning from it, instead of leaning into it. Everyone listening has either gone through pain, is currently going through it, or is about to walk into a season of it. Now, This is not an episode to be In fact, full transparency, I'm in a season of pain right now that I'm navigating through. We're referring to emotional pain when I often like to ask myself and I often ask my clients, what are you going to do with it? After this episode, it is my hope that you'll walk away understanding a few things. Number one, why pain shows up, what it's trying to teach us, and Because it will if you let it. And can you escape it?

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Absolutely. Depending on what type of personality you have, you may be able to just turn it off and pretend it Avoid, avoid, avoid. But like I often say, what we avoid chases us and eventually we're forced to face it. So why not get it out of the way? Why not navigate through it? I choose to tap into my creative outlets to do just that. I also do what experts would suggest, journal, exercise, pray, sleep, talk to friends, process it. We live in a world where it's just easier to run away from it. I'm choosing to sit with it. I've done this before. I've been here before. I'm sure I'll be here again. Hopefully it's not the same type of scenario, but there's a gift here. If we can just lean in enough to see it, if we can lean in enough to learn the lesson, Society teaches us pain means something's wrong. We're trained to numb, distract, I believe God designs pain to get our full attention. Does he do it to put us in pain purposely?

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No. Pain is part of the human experience, specifically emotional pain, physical pain too. Physical pain obviously really Some would say emotional pain tied to matters of the heart, relationships, both professionally and personally. When pain shows up, the same receptors in our brain fire off as if we're withdrawing from something. as if physical pain actually showed up. These are real things that are part of the human experience. And yet we're trained to numb, distract, avoid, or suppress it versus looking for the feedback. What if pain isn't punishment? What if it's instruction? I often like to ask myself when I find myself in a season of pain, what role did I play to produce That's the peeling back layer number one of why the pain is there in the first place. I So you've got something tangible to take away. And if you're, you're, you're in a season of pain right now, I'm, I'm, I'm believing and praying that the season is going to shape and mold and prune you and deliver you into a completely different version of yourself where you're more aware, where you've You've actually leverage the pain to become better. What's the quote say? Don't let it make you bitter. Let it make you better.

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First thing I want to talk about is pain shows up exactly when it needs to. Pain often appears when you've outgrown a situation. You're ignoring truth. You're staying somewhere you know you don't belong anymore. or you're being called to grow. All of these things can coexist at the same time. Here's what pain exposes. Misalignment, broken patterns, emotional blind spots, in layman's terms, when we ignore the obvious, when we ignore that gut feeling, also known as God's whisper. And no, no, no, no, no, we're good. We're good. It's all good. It's all good. I'm good.

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Because oftentimes when we overlook those things and then the wheels fall off and we're left holding the bag, wondering what in the world happened. Well, if we retrace our steps, back to situations we've outgrown, truth that we chose to ignore, or staying somewhere that we don't belong anymore, or an opportunity to grow that we've blightly There's a couple of questions to ask yourself that I've been asking myself too, by the way, we're in this thing together. What is this pain trying to get my attention about? This is a good one that'll really rattle you. What am I tolerating that I shouldn't be? Here's the beautiful one. Still uncomfortable, but beautiful. Where am I being asked to grow? What areas need improvement? Second thing I want to talk to you about, pain's Pain rarely gives you more than you can eventually handle, but it always gives you enough to force change, force change. You can say the same too. You can stay in the pain. You don't have to do anything at all. You I don't know why that would make any logical sense at all, but pain does a couple of things. It creates urgency. It It also removes illusions. We create these illusions, these fantasies in our mind, these ideas in our mind of And when they don't work out that way, well, enter scene pain. I found myself countless times being forced to change and evolve because staying the same hurt more. Something I want to invite you to consider the idea is going to become a breakthrough that you did not see coming sooner rather I don't have the Tony Robbins quote right here in front of me, but you can It says something like when the pain of staying the same becomes greater than the pain of change, we shift. How true that is. Pain always carries the right lesson. There's a lesson here. So there's teacher, there's a lesson, there's a dose, there's timing.

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Pain teaches things that comfort never, ever, ever can. Pain teaches boundaries. It teaches self-respect. It teaches emotional strength, discernment. Gratitude, perspective, all things that we beg for clarity on when we're in it, all of those things. I want you to reframe pain for a second. I want you to reframe it as a spotlight, as I love that. A catalyst. Pain is the catalyst Pain's a wake-up call too. It's time to wake up, listen to the pain, do something about it. Massive action often solves a majority of life's problems, especially when you're in the throes of pain. Here's You can do it now. You can run. Don't do it now because you're listening to the episode. You can do This is around the 11 and a half, 12 minute mark. If you're paying attention or taking notes, here's the exercise I want to encourage you to do. I'm not telling you to do it. You don't have to do anything, but I would encourage you to do it. What did this experience teach me about myself? Number two, what strengths did this pain uncover? And number three, how am I different because of this experience? Now Here's some practical steps that I've learned that I'm currently integrated, have integrated into my life that are extremely effective. Here's how to process pain constructively. Number one, you gotta feel it. You can't suppress it. You can't drink it away, smoke it away, run it away, exercise it away, travel away, shop away, whatever your thing is, you gotta feel it. You gotta stay in it and feel all It sucks, it's awful, but you gotta feel it. Then you gotta name it. Get honest about what hurts. What is actually hurting you? What is creating the pain? Identify it, name it. Then you got to learn from it. You got to extract the lesson from the experience. And lastly, you got to use it. You got to help someone else with your experience. That's exactly what I'm doing right now. I've had the most tumultuous, emotionally painful 30 days that I've had in a minute. And I'm grateful because it's been a long time, but I'm working through it. And there's a light at the end of the tunnel and it's not a train for the past month. I thought maybe it was, Your greatest pain often becomes your greatest message, your greatest mission, your greatest connection point with others, but you got You got to be with it and you got to use it. You got to do something with it and you got to realize what it actually is. That's the goal of this It's to create a conversation around being able to process the pain, be with the pain. As we wrap up, I want to remind you of a couple of things. Pain isn't here to destroy you. It's here to shape Sometimes the most painful chapters become the most meaningful parts of your story. And that, my friends, is the good news.

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Give you another great quote that I absolutely love. Your story could become someone's survival guide one day. So what is pain trying to teach you right now? Think about that. Be with that question. Meditate on it. Journal about it. Think about it. Pray about it. Do all the things. and get real clear on what the lesson is here. If this episode resonated with you and something landed and you're like, whoa, I'm glad I tuned in, share this episode with a friend, share this with someone who needs some encouragement right now. And I want you to invite all of you to reflect and journal about your current season that you're in right now. I really appreciate you taking some time out of your day to hang out with me for a few minutes. There are so many things you could be doing, but you chose to hang out with me for 15 or so minutes and help me through my process of processing pain I know a bunch of you out there scratching your head. What in the world could be going? It doesn't matter. Pain is pain. It's no different from yours or mine or someone you love and care about. If Share this with a friend. Someone else needs to hear this message. If it landed for you, it will land for someone else. If you have any questions, feedback, shoot me a instant message over on Instagram at podcast suck. That's podcast plural. I'm here to chat. People got my back like a jacket. Why wouldn't I have yours? Thanks again for tuning in next time. Remember this is all temporary, but you got to work through it until next time. Thanks so much for tuning into this episode of the Beyond the Story podcast. We sure do appreciate it. If you haven't done so already, make sure you're subscribed to the show. This way you'll get updates as new episodes become available. If you feel so inclined, please leave us a review. We sure do appreciate it. Signing off from the podcast, launchlab.com studios.