(Ep. 39) The Powerful Relationship between Joy and Pain

What if the reason you can't feel joy anymore is the same reason you've been avoiding your pain?In this episode of Triggered & True, Laura Duncan and co-host Brian Freise explore a truth that reframes both halves of your emotional life: pain and joy travel the same circuits in the brain. Suppress one and you suppress the other. It's why so many adults quietly notice the wonder, play, and delight of childhood has drained away — not because joy left, but because the unfelt pain underneath is blocking the whole channel.Opening with the words Brian gave his daughter at her wedding — that life brings breath-taking moments, some exceedingly painful and some exceedingly joyful, sometimes in the same package — Laura and Brian unpack the neuroscience and the hope of it. Why you can't selectively numb, why the only way out is through, and why comfort always rises to meet pain in equal measure — feel a ten in pain, and you can feel a ten in comfort. The catch is trust: most of us stopped believing comfort would come, so we stopped feeling at all. The empowering turn is discovering that the comfort was never meant to come only from outside you — it's an inside job you're capable of.In this episode: 🔹 The neuroscience: pain and joy share the same circuits, so suppressing one suppresses the other 🔹 Why joy fades with age — not because it left, but because unfelt pain is blocking the channel 🔹 Why you can't selectively numb — cover your eyes to pain and you cover them to joy 🔹 Why comfort rises to meet pain in equal measure — and why we stop believing it will come 🔹 Comfort as an inside job: why even the best people in your life can only reach so far in📩 Get your free Weekly Dose of Compassion — two short notes in your inbox every week. One to speak over yourself. One from Laura: https://www.lauraduncan.com/pl/2148814868🔗 Learn more: https://triggeredandtrue.comhttps://lauraduncan.com