Self Mutilation

Everyone hates to get a bad cut or scrape and when we get one, we all suffer through the pain of it. Some of us may have a higher tolerance than others but we all suffer to some degree. What is the first thought that crosses your mind immediately after the wound opens? My guess would be, stop the pain and stop the bleeding. Based on the things you have learned about stopping pain and bleeding, you would immediately use some sort of pain medication and bandage the wound. As time passed, you would continue to care for your injury until it would eventually heal.

Now imagine that instead of taking medication and bandaging the wound, you spent your days talking to others about how it happened, how much it hurt and then every time it started to show signs of healing you would pick at it until the pain came back and it started bleeding again. Would that make any sense? Why would you want to relive the accident? Why would you pick at it, recreating the pain? Why would you not let it heal and just learn from the incident?

It may sound like something a crazy person would do but this is what we do sometimes with the things that happen to us in our lives. We retell the stories of pain over and over. We pick at our emotional wounds until they hurt almost as much as the first time. Once we are bleeding again, we stand around wondering why we these things happen us.

Let time heal the wounds. Use what you know, to make it heal faster. Once it has healed, let it be and use the experience to learn and move forward.