i wonder if relief is really real. if it is restoration of unrest at all. or merely the appearance of a return to composure, with the semi-permanent subliminal scarring of the psyche.
when an individual feels stress or endures pain, or suffers in any way, they are taking on damage to their subconscious. and when that pain is alleviated or that stress is lifted, or their discontent proves to be false (in the context of a prank or a misunderstanding), they are overcome with a sensation we’ve took to calling relief. and while relief feels good, relief is hardly real at all, it’s merely relative. relief is not a thing in itself, but the absence of a thing; just as darkness is the absence of light. relief is not the absolving of felt pain but the elimination of further pain. and in that way, it doesn’t matter if the past is invalidated, it still affects the present, and therefore the future.
i make this observation with the purpose of calling into question the value of stress as a motivator. if relief functions as a release, than it is assumed that relief is the reaction to an escape from something undesirable, and if stress is the prerequisite to relief, then it follows that stress itself is nothing but undesirable. this isn’t the case of having to go through rain to see a rainbow, this is the case of suffocating yourself to relish in the sensation of breathing air. relief is not a new state of mind, it is a return to the original one, a return to life. relief. relife.
cheesy, i know, but consider the reality of it all. relief certainly isn’t something we should be chasing. it’s not something at all. it is merely the relative phantom sensation of a sudden absence of pain. pain we didn’t need to feel, to feel relief. relief is not the absolving of felt pain but the elimination of further pain. it is the ending of something, not the beginning of something else. all that came before it is not erased or excused, that was all felt just as authentically as the relief that follows it. and while the acknowledgement of those feelings has lost credibility, the reactions still leave imprints on the soul. relief is not a replay. or a restart. it’s relativity.
