Phantom

I have been curious about something as of late...the thought of phantom pains. The reason being is that I think I am feeling some kind of phantom pain where organs were a few weeks ago and are no longer there, So I did a little research and found out that it's not that uncommon. This terminology of "phantom" became known when people would have, for one reason or another, a limb amputated. They would tell the doctors that they were still experiencing sensations in a limb that was no longer there. Doctors referred to it as a phantom limb. The brain has a funny way of playing tricks on us, doesn't it?

This caused me to take a deep dive into the human psyche - or at least my psyche - and try to find some hidden gem of a correlation to the memory. And I discovered something rather interesting. We do the same thing in our lives, not just in a physical sense but in a psychological sense. Allow me to explain.

We all have experiences that cause us somehow to rely upon our memory to bring those experiences to the surface of our mind. Painful experiences are the most relevant here. We go through something traumatic, hurtful, painful, sad. Whether it be a death of a loved one, divorce, love lost, betrayal, and it still hurts long after the situation is over. Why? I do not intend to sound trivial here, but the fact is that we somehow experience "phantom" pain. The incident happened in the past, but we still experience the emotion as if it still continues to be there. 

In the case of something like a death of a beloved pet, that phantom pain helps us come to terms, in a slow way, with the fact that our furry family member will no longer be around. Our brain gradually brings to our conscience those pains less frequently. It eventually gets to the point where we mentally know it happened, but we do not live with the same pain.

In the case of a divorce, that phantom pain will oftentimes cause us feeling of remorse or guilt. The more we allow the pain to be in the present the more difficult it is to get past the pain. In circumstances such as that it helps that we have someone who will lovingly remind us that the relationship is no longer present-tense, but something that needs to be placed in the past in order for us to live in the present.

Does this make sense? I am no psychologist, but I do know the power of my own mind. I know that many times I feel the sting of something that is no longer there - that should no longer be causing me pain.

So when I feel a stab of pain, or a tingling sensation where I know for a fact nothing remains in my physical body, I will remember that my mind is still trying to catch up with my body. And in the same way, when I feel phantom pains of a past relationship, I will be more aware that it sometimes takes a while for the mind to process the memories and place them in the past, where they need to stay in order for me to be emotionally sound once more.