Today (I wrote this text on the 25th of November, 2023), while walking and doing street photography, I was not thinking about pain.
Why? Because I felt my fingers hurt a little bit. It was 1 degree Celsius (33.8 degrees Fahrenheit), the wind was blowing, and it was snowy. I’ve already written a text that cold hurts. Doing street photography on the day mentioned above was no exception. I reminded myself that freezing temperatures, indeed, hurt. Still, thinking about pain was the worst thing that can happen while walking in frigid temperatures and wearing summer clothes (including the www.adammazek.com t-shirt, shorts, sneakers, winter cap, and gloves).
When I am in the middle of my photo cooling walk and imagine that I, e.g., hit my foot on the post, my whole body suddenly starts to hurt.
It’s as if my mind, a powerful force, takes over, amplifying the pain. I cannot explain why it happens. This power tells me not to think about physical pain while exposing my body to freezing temperatures. While doing it, imaginary pain spreads all over the body immediately. I sometimes ponder over the philosophical debate about which kind of pain is worse, the mental or physical one. The answer is not straightforward. Nevertheless, if I had to choose one of the options, I would point out that physical pain is worse than mental pain.
I know it is a controversy.
Nevertheless, when one considers I try to have a stoic attitude in my life, I know mental pain, from the stoic point of view, should not exist. Am I sad I feel physical pain while exposing my body to cold? No. In the same way, I am not angry when I feel pain in sports activities. I believe the pain from the cold is as healing as the pain from physical activity.
