Just as the dog's salivation was a conditioned response to its' environment, so is how you respond to your pain a conditioned response. Now don't get me wrong please, I am not comparing you to Pavlov's dog. What I am saying is that how we respond to our pain and to our lives in general, are often conditioned responses that we have learned over our life-time.
There are many behavioural experiments and studies that have taken place over the decades that have provided a great deal of understanding to why we do what we do and how we can re-learn to do things differently. Although I will not go into the various experiments or the behavioural theories here, I mention it because our behaviour can be mapped and it can be understood.
Your personal experiences, thoughts, beliefs and perceptions of a life with pain will shape how you live within your life. To re-condition your thoughts on pain, you need to challenge your beliefs. Question how you think and feel about your pain and your life now that pain is a part of you.
We can learn to accept even the most negative things in life, if we change how we feel about them. Life doesn't stop because of your pain. Life stops because you stop believing your life is worth it.
Re-condition your thoughts and you will re-condition your life.
take good care of you