Pain – The Catalyst

Bravely walk through the fires of life,

Immerse yourself in its joys!

Everything serves a purpose,

Just like the Sun and Moon…

                                                                                                                  Poem by Akanksha

Pain is the one excruciating emotion we never want to experience. Yet many a time we come face to face with it. The feeling itself is so uncertain that it in a way paralyzes you. You lose your ability to think rationally. The feeling slowly and steady settles deep in your chest. Like a huge paperweight. No matter how hard one tries you cannot escape it. You build armour around yourself. To guard the most precious thing of all, your Heart. Not letting anyone come close to it.  And in no time you realize you are trapped. All alone, all by yourself, not one to help.

Such is the emotion called Pain. Or shall I rather say there is immense pain to be in pain! Many think that people are addicted to their pain. That is the emotion that they choose to be in. And are comforted by it. But that is untrue. Nobody wants to be in pain. It is cruel to even think like that in the first place. People just don’t see a way out of their pain, that’s it and trust me they are always finding a way to get out of it. It is like being trapped in muddy waters that pull you down the harder you try. But even when you don’t you are bound to drown! The more you fight, the harder it strikes back. After a while, you stop. You don’t even bother to try. You surrender to it. The pain intensifies. It suffocates you. But when you let it consume you, it feels like death, the end of it all. Then something magical happens. For the time in a very long time, you experience relief. And one fine day, you wake and realize that you no longer are in pain. You’re happy, you jump! And thank the Universe for it. But you don’t know what needs to be done now. How to carry on with life! You get annoyed. Frustrated, in a way and you think you’ve gone back to square one! Then your pain subtly whispers to you. You smile back, looking at it like a long lost friend, reacquainted. And this is how it tells you its story!

Life is like a wildflower full of thorns! As beautiful as it might seem it is immensely uncertain. In order to get the wildflower, you need to go through the thorns. Similarly to live a life worth living, you need to come across pain, several times! And yet move on!

Success is measured in increments. Our Emotional Health is the most neglected thing today. Our attempt to keep running away from our unpleasant emotions is what keeps us stuck in them. 

Emotions are ‘energy in motion. They need to flow freely through the body. We are always looking for an escape route from feelings such as stress, anxiety, pain, anger, inner void, emptiness, and sadness. And why wouldn’t we? They hurt like hell!

 Pain comprises all the above-mentioned emotions. And in no time they become the cause of our suffering! 

But the reality is, we can never really get away with our emotions! Be it negative emotions or positive ones. And Pain is no different.

Pain holds immense value. It will only reveal the purpose of its existence if you are patient enough to acknowledge it. It is only during the darkest of times that man understands his power. The illusion of ego is thus shattered. Piercing into the veil of your infinite consciousness. 

We are fixated on this impractical idea that we have to somehow get rid of our pain. And if we do not then something is genuinely wrong with us!  But is it actually possible on a practical basis? 

Does the sun, shine radiantly throughout the day? On a daily basis? For the whole year?? 

Why do you expect yourself to be any different? 

Nor is it that I am glorifying pain! 

All I am saying is to embrace it. 

We are energetic beings at our very core. We are basically made up of energy. Our bodies also. But it is a denser form of energy, called matter. Earth is a physical dimension. In order to experience life on earth, we need a physical body. And the physical body has its set of rules and regulations. And is the emotional guidance system. Just like you are bound to get sick someday or the other, you are bound to experience intense negative emotions for that very reason. But what happens when you allow yourself to fall sick and rest? Is it healthy to keep “busy” even though you’re sick? What do you think would happen if you kept wondering, why am I sick rather than just resting? You will fall sick! But if you give yourself enough nutrition and rest you will flourish faster! Being sick means that your body is detoxifying itself. That is, getting rid of unwanted things inside it. So is the case with our negative emotions. 

In no way are you bound to be forever stuck in your pain! This is a huge assumption that we humans make! Which makes us panic. The feeling itself is so unfamiliar and uncomfortable that we no longer can breathe. But that is what pain demands. Which is, Unconditional Presence, that’s it! It doesn’t even need your acceptance! All it asks you is to be with it. But the irony is once you be with it, sooner or later you understand it, you accept it! And that is how you no longer try running away from it. You no longer fear it. You develop profound empathy towards your pain. And that is only when your pain reveals its purpose… 

Something completely surreal! You become a whole new person. Just like a phoenix rising from its ashes! And when pain knocks on your door again, you gladly welcome it and are ready to walk through the fire once again! Knowing it has come to purify you and burn away everything that isn’t you! In order to build a foundation of a New You!