Stress Lowers Your Tolerance to Pain — Here’s How to Become More Resilient
Pain tolerance isn’t genetic — it’s something you have more control over than you think.
When you give birth, you’re told to relax. If you stress about it, or fear the pain, it only makes it worse. It seems paradoxical and, to some extent, completely nonsensical. Surely, I thought, thought alone isn’t enough to diminish the lived sensation of pain? Because pain is experienced by the body experiences pain, while thoughts are experienced by the mind. Right?
Wrong.
People say that on the other side of love is hate. Please allow me to edit this: On the other side of love is pain. Love and pain refer to a cosmic mix of feelings and sensations that no one can truly explain. Sure, you could say love is oxytocin, serotonin, dopamine, and endorphins. But that doesn’t explain it, if you’ve felt it. It’s the same as pain.
As I lay there, screaming in pain as I gave birth unmedicated, I have never felt closer to death. Looking back, I know why the pain was so bad. It wasn’t because I had a watermelon coming out of my vagina, it was because my brain was interpreting my pain as life-ending. I gave birth in the pandemic, amidst a very stressful time in my life. The days leading up to my labor are…
