A Preface about Pain

A Preface about Pain

Pain can be a vehicle; Pain can be a destination. Pain is pain - regardless of your relationship with it. And this is why pain is a divisive realm. In most of my interactions with people, the concept of using pain becomes unfathomable. That’s not an unreasonable reaction. After all, the very definition of the word holds a negative connotation. In it’s most simplistic form - the definition conjures suffering. At our base biological level, pain does serve as an evolutional mechanism for survival. So, suffering equals terrible, right? I want to challenge that notion. That seems a little binary.

Not all pain is created equal. Just as sex is a dopamine-creating experience, so is creating the experience of pain. When you set the intention, you determine the experience. The black and white print in a dictionary cannot begin to contain the myriad meanings of pain. Pain lives on a spectrum - more than fifty shades of gray.

We have evolved to be more nuanced and complex than our biological functions to survive. In the words of Shakespeare, “there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” We are all the culmination of our combined life experiences - the good, the bad, and the ugly. We look at life wearing filters colored by our unique mythology. Everything is subject to perception under the microscope of our filters, and so, our realities are subjective.

Now, that’s some meta sh!t. Keep that in mind as you follow my personal journey in exploring pain and everything in between. It’s like you’re watching a live human science experiment. Disclaimer: It might get weird.

Xoxo,

Shibari Barbie

Photographer: Mark Dektor

Shibari Artist: Matt Brawley