Pain as a Tool for Change
Yesterday thousands of people had to face the pain and the loss of their beloved ones in the tragedy of September 11. Millions had to face the reminder of fear of losing ones. September 11 will always stand in our memory as a day of fear and pain on one side and on the other as a day where heroism and acts of love and kindness have shown up in multitude ways.
In our daily life we try to avoid and ignore pain and fear as much as possible. One of the reasons we don’t like pain is that it forces us to look at issues we normally refuse to look at. We need to look at issues that we don’t like to confront and the fears that we try to suppress and avoid facing.
However, when we dare to face the fear and the pain, pain can become a great source of learning and therefore can become a tool that can make a change in our life. It can become a tool that would allow us to grow, develop and use more of our potential. When we are able to do that, pain can become a friend to us.
Pain is like a big wave in the sea.
You stand there in the water and in front of you rises this blue-green mountain that moves in enormous speed towards you.
This is how we experience pain, like a big, cold wave that rises inside our body.
When you stand there, facing a big, cold wave of pain you have a few alternatives:
1. You can dive under the wave and let is pass over you, without feeling it and without moving from your place.
This is what we do when we take all those painkillers (from tablets to alcohol, drugs, over-eating, busyness, television, etc…)
2. You can face the wave; thinking that you are strong enough to win it.
That’s when you fall over (depression) or even being crushed (mental illness).
3. You can become paralyzed. We call it, state of shock.
4. You can catch the wave and ride it, using its immense energy and power to take you faster and further away from where you were before.
In this case you let go of control and at the same time master the situation.
You feel power, speed and excitement of living in the now and on the edge.
With it comes the risk of falling down to the bottom, that without it, it would not be so much fun.
Pain has so much power in it that we can either use it in order to move quickly with a lot of energy and excitement to a new place.
Or we can look at it as a monster and live under its shadow scared to experience its presence again.
Yesterday was an opportunity for all of us to look at pain and fear and use that enormous energy that comes with it to take us into a new era. To recommit into making sure that our world will be a better one and that we can change things.
Or we can just let the fear of it control us and get stuck in resistance and trying to hold back time and get stuck with old patterns and old world views.
The question is - what would you choose?
