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A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with Guvna B Good Morning I’ve been doing some work on my relationship with feeling pain. In my experience, it’s inevitable in life, and I always thought I handled it quite well. I grew up in the East End of London where the mentality was stiff upper lip, get through it by any means necessary. What I’ve realised is that instead of facing pain head on, going through the tunnel and coming out the other side with a scar of victory, I often avoided the tunnel altogether. I became numb. Dr Gabor Maté says when we’re under threat there are three natural responses. First is to ask for help. If there’s no help, the second is to fight. If you can’t fight, the third is to run away. But what if there’s no help, you’re can’t fight back, and you can’t run? Well, then you go numb. That’s your body’s way of protecting you from the pain. I lived my whole life numbing and I sometimes feel like I have a heart of stone. Like there’s not much that really moves me. But deep down I’d love to feel things again. I’ve started trying different ways of approaching that, and while I’m still figuring it out, it’s making a difference. The other day I was having a coffee in a coffee shop and after a couple of sips, I thought, I can actually taste this coffee. My numbness made things like that part of my routine, rather than something to enjoy. Maybe next time I’ll have more answers, but for now my prayer is that I simply learn that being numb isn’t the same thing as being strong. Real strength comes when you’re able to feel in a healthy way. Amen