Life IS pain. Anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something.

[aumentou]

I've got a bruise three inches above the right nipple from a bite, and one towards the front of the left armpit from a bill. I'm walking with a limp after a rather nasty jab to the outside of my left hip joint, and there are a few other scratches and jabs here and there.

Medieval practise makes me feel alive, and I think the reason it does is it taps primal impulses (responses to pain and violence) in ways that are far more intense than the everyday. Normal life pain is a bit of a headache, or those rather nasty arthritis twinges - so, irritating, chronic, but not exciting. Fighting pains are far more intense, and hence exciting.
Bruises and so forth are also good because you know that one day they will be gone. There's an optimistic outlook, whereas everyday pain will probably just increase as you get older.

On an unrelated issue, Guns n Roses are now back in my CD collection, and have just helped me tidy my room. To the uninitiated the new tidy state might look quite similar to the previous untidy state, but everything is arranged in a more logical manner. Really.

Comments

[bluecassandra.livejournal.com]

"If you believe it could hurt, it doesn't need to."

sounds like my sex life.

Anyway, yeah, I think the self harming thing is the natural focus on pain thats got kinda twisted up along of the way (pain does trigger soem reinforcing things, like an adrenalin rush sometimes, plus short sharp pain can be a release from long dull pain) - plus there are the symbolic elements to it as well, which you dont really have in re-enactment. Used to know a kid who sliced her arm once for each slice of bread she ate. I think she'll be wearing long sleeves alot.

[ms-rivet.livejournal.com]

I agree about the symbolism thing- a friend who used to do it said "now my outside matches my inside".Another person has carved symbols into their arms. BTW thanks for backing me up on the BDSM thing as it can be hard to explain to people who don't practise :)