Watching City of Angels for the second time has got me thinking. Imagine you're experiencing pain for the first time ever. You can't help but to acknowledge that it feels awful. But you have no preconceived idea of the very concept of pain itself.
Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way. - Victor Frankl
Beyond the first yelp of pain you let out, how would you then react to the experience? How would you choose to feel?
This will be my late New Year resolution: To consciously choose how I want to feel; to shy away from unnatural feelings like anxiety, stress and self-pity; to be at peace even when I'm experiencing pain.
No, am not about to shave my head, head to a monastery and live in Zen monkhood for all eternity.