In your life, you may at times feel you have worked so hard, and you have done every single thing you could in your power to earn your way and be a good person. You have given and given and given — trying never to keep a score or be a burden to others. You tried so hard to be selfless and tried to believe that good people are rewarded in the end. You turned your doubts into faith and your anger into love after endless failures and betrayals. You pressed forward with positivity. But, maybe things have not turned out the way you had hoped yet, and you have found yourself in a low place. You looked around and said, "I have helped people, who will help me? I have been so good." In these moments, it is tempting to ask, "where is my break; what about karma or God — does anyone care? Is everything in life for nothing? Is any of it worth it?" It is so easy to want to give up in times of failure and disappointment in what seems like an endless struggle. We can become depressed and dis-couraged, which means we have lost our courage.
Through spiritual maturity you will see new ways to avoid unnecessary suffering; wiser ways to endure unavoidable hardships with grace, and opportunities to turn your pain into lessons of service and healing for others. Your hard journey has had a great purpose! Your pain was always a part of a plan to open your heart to love. Have faith. A miracle is happening in your life; the miracle of pain is transforming you to your highest self.
Crossing the Rubicon of absolute pain is the only journey of purpose and meaning in life. Without your pain you are nothing but a spiritual embryo. Your pain offers you, the student, a choice of how you will receive the lesson. You can choose to let the pain harden your heart even more and close you off to the blessings of life. Or, you can allow the hammer of pain to split open the stone armor of your hardness; exposing the tenderness and beauty of your sweet spirit and sacred heart. Your pain is a divine rite of passage through which you will be reborn as a being of strength, wisdom and purpose. With your new eyes, you will see yourself and the world differently. With your new eyes, first look deeply at yourself, and see in yourself the divine architect's incomprehensible art! Your first realization will be that you are beautiful!
Your pain is challenging you. Rise up from your sadness, frustration and low spirits, and allow the privilege of life's challenges to be your guiding companion. We are all just humble students of the world. What lesson does this painful majesty of life have for you today? The teacher can only provide the lessons, but the student ultimately decides what to learn. Life is a procession of painful lessons, and how precious those lessons are; so precious that we rejoice in the bitter-sweet gift of life. If you learn to look at the worldly madness through spiritual eyes, you will begin to see divine balance and sanity. Your suffering is not senseless. Your suffering is here to help you unfold and to awaken into compassion, love and strength. Your entire life has unfolded for your heart's ascension to love. Are you willing to accept its challenge?
It is tragic the way fearful people put all of their fears and insecurities into others; the way they strangle their dreams — often in the name of love. Some people run from pain their whole lives, and what pain they do not digest they inflict upon others. You can't run from your pain forever. Avoiding pain causes endless suffering for you and others. Avoiding pain is really selfishness. When you face your pain, you will discover you were always stronger than your pain. Your pain was always a fraud; appearing inescapable, insurmountable and sometimes even as a friend. The time has come to say goodbye to the afflictions you have been carrying, nurturing, protecting and empowering. When you truly face your pain you will only see yourself. Your fear was always you. Fear is a prison where you are the jailer. Free yourself! Anything you want is just beyond your fear. Your healing hour arrives the moment you decide to live fully and powerfully. That moment is now.
Crisis is what suppressed pain looks like; it always comes to the surface. It shakes you into reflection and healing. When you are avoiding your pain you are really only avoiding your growth. Get up in your pain's face — eyeball to eyeball — and say, "I'm not afraid of you!" The biggest liar you will ever meet is yourself. It is amazing the lies we tell ourselves because of fear. Stop your lying-mind dead in its tracks; no more running in frantic circles of nonsensical denial. No more blaming. No more escapism. No more neglecting. No more dodging and running. Suck it up. Swallow it. The only end to your pain is through fully consuming it and digesting it; otherwise it will consume you. When you face your fears in the light of openness and honesty, they will vanish. We carry many of these dark fears inside of us; frightening forms of mental obstacles that cast shadows on every beautiful possibility.
There is an intelligent healing process inside of you that knows how to absorb pain and transform it into wisdom. But to heal, you have to give yourself to the pain. You cannot avoid facing yourself your whole life. If you avoid your truthful emotions and pain you will implode and contract into a diminished and unfeeling state. Growth and empowerment require reflection and facing the frightening, ugly, hard and unbearable reality. People are often clever masters at fooling themselves and not seeing the obvious right in front of them. One of the fastest ways to move through your pain is to get a grip on reality. Real transformation requires real honesty. If you want to move forward — get real with yourself!
What frustrates you right now will be over one day, and, believe it or not, you will miss something about it. So look at your challenges with a degree of appreciation. This may be where you are now, but not tomorrow, and when that time comes you will realize that it all had great purpose in your life.
It's not wrong to be upset. It's not wrong to cry. It's not wrong to want attention. It's not even wrong to scream or throw a fit. What is wrong is to keep it all inside. What is wrong is to blame and punish yourself for simply being human. What is wrong is to never be heard and to be alone in your pain. Share it. Let it out. Tears are good. What flows is alive. Crying is like a thundershower for the soul. The air feels so wonderful after the rain. Don't think too much. Breathe. Don't be harsh or demanding on yourself. Just experience your feelings and know that your tears are announcing change in your life. Change is coming; like a summer rain — to wash away your pain. Have faith that things are getting better.
Many people are terrified of emotions and real communications. People are even afraid of their own feelings. Don't be made to feel ashamed of feeling, or of connecting deeply with others, or in being unabashedly you. Don't be afraid to express your truth. Open yourself to feeling everything! Living without feeling is no different than not living at all. If you repress your emotions your will only bring future suffering to yourself — feel whatever it is you're experiencing! Don't miss out on feeling the life you are living.
