by Vincent Maxwell

Created on: November 23, 2009

When it comes to humans experiencing pain, the obvious answer for the physical variety is that it provides a warning system if something is wrong. At first glance the same can be said about emotional pain, that it's our bodies way of protecting itself. However just like the tip of the iceberg, there is much more to the necessity of pain than just being a defense mechanism. Because just like good and evil, our emotions have essential opposites.

Pain is the most important factor for joy to take place. Only someone who has been in pain can truly experience joy. Think of life as a roller coaster, to go up you have to go down sometimes first. A roller coaster that only goes up is not a roller coaster anymore, just as a life without feelings is not a life.

The human mind is extremely complex and as a society, we are still a long way from fully understanding how it works. But one thing that is certain about the brain is its need for balance. Almost every aspect of human behavior is a balance of some kind, from amount of sleep to experiencing pain.

The trick is not to eradicate pain, but to find the perfect balance to get the most out of joy. Too often people either experience pain too much, and lose hope for the joy to come. While others have too little pain, and find that joy has lost its luster. Now this does not mean that if somebody has not experienced pain in a while that they should go looking for it. But maybe they should take some more risks.

Some people are so afraid of pain that they close their mental doors all together to their emotions, and if there is one thing life is about, its about living! It's about pain, it's about love, it's about us and our struggle to conquer our emotions. Because through life, there are just as many emotional challenges as there is physical.

To remove pain, or any of the emotions we experience for that matter, from the equation of life has drastic effects. Look at the severity some mental illnesses have that throw the delicate balance of emotions off and completely cripple lives. So when it comes to feeling pain, just remember that it's something that not only makes you stronger, but makes the hopefully soon to come joy that much better.

Learn more about this author, Vincent Maxwell.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.