Pleasure and pain.
Opposites.
Both last for a brief time
They are not about long term
They are about short term
Pleasure, you crave it, you feel like you need it…You get it, and then it’s done.
Pain, you fear it, you would avoid it, you don’t know if you are going to die or place yourself in an eternal condition that will cause more pain and more anxiety regarding that fear.
Yet
We go to the gym, and damage our muscles. And feel pain.
Why?
The pain is there. We are going to feel it.
What happened then?
We shifted our focus. From the temporary pain, to the slightly delayed pleasure of appearing bigger, feeling more in our body and maybe the compliments we receive.
Most people that do weights know that they feel pain, they actually know the distinction between good pain and bad pain (anaerobic / catabolic / pain-pain) and they use their feeling to guide them through the exercises.
Yet most weight lifter actually feel pleasure when confronting that pain.
It’s as if they have associated the longer term pleasure with the short term pain, hence the pain becomes the pleasure because it’s an omen of the pleasure to come.