What Pain Teaches Us

Physical pain is acceptable in our society. We all have experienced physical pain and we hear it talked about in social circles and in groups.  Emotional pain is not as acceptable or discussed openly in the same way as physical pain. The wounds are just as deep and can be just as acute. 

Mary Rockwood Lane, R. N., Ph.D. is co-author of Spirit Body Healing: Using Your Minds Eye To Unlock The Medicine Within, www.spiritbodyhealing.com, which is the first book on spiritual healing to come from a research study in a major university health-care center. On my radio show, I asked her how individuals were able to work through the pain in doing the exercises. Dr. Lane said, “They would face and embody the pain. When you walk into that dark place it’s like a space that is within you that actually lives  there.  I use guided imagery techniques in the book that allow you to go deeper into that place and and at the same time experience it in a very safe and protected way.  Using your breath and  imagery techniques, you are able to work in that place and move from there.” 

 When I was going through this process, I wrote the following dialogue which I titled Talking To the Pain.  “Q-Why is the pain there? A-To show me that it has always been there and that it is time to pull it out.  Q-What else does it tell you? A-Until the arrow is removed my heart will not be totally open. I can not totally give and I can not totally receive. Q-How are you going to remove the arrow? A-I don't know. Pulling it out seems so painful because it's a big arrow and it goes right through my heart. If I yank it out, I may damage my heart. Q-How else can you remove it? A-I can dissolve it in white light. I can put it through "God chemotherapy" and shrink it until it is not there anymore. Q- But doesn't chemotherapy have side effects? A-Not  God's chemotherapy.” 

Allowing ourselves to feel pain hurts and it can feel paralyzing. However, what I found is that it passes and I have a deeper understanding and appreciation of myself. I am sharing this because I know I am not alone and that so many of us numb the pain when we feel it because it hurts too much and it’s scary. We do all sorts of things to avoid feeling what we really feel, but there is a such a great strength in feeling the pain and moving through it. And when we do,  a whole new life of possibilities awaits us.