In my various discussions on pain management, I’ve mentioned the philosophies of those who argue that, to some degree, you simply have to talk yourself out of pain. You have to convince yourself not to take the pain seriously and it will go away. While I’ve never had 100% success with such methods, it probably been the most successful for me.

Of course, it’s hard to ignore pain. And we live in a society that lives by the mantra of “listen to your body.” We are told that we need to become more in touch with our bodies, not ignore them.

Why is this? I blame hippies. 50 years ago they advocated that “if it feels right, it is right.” And where are we now? In a hedonistic, godless society where girls as young as four years old are already grandmothers and cocaine is as commonplace as mom’s apple pie. Are you proud of yourselves hippies? Are you happy with what you’ve done?

As I think about this, it strikes me there’s another common situation where our body’s messages should be ignored. Hunger. You’re on your fifth slice of a delectable pepperoni pizza and your stomach is screaming, “More! More!” But our intellect knows these urgings are false. It’s a clear example of, “if it feels right, it isn’t right.”

But I fear this message is too late. The hippies have ruined everything.