Most of us have an immediate aversion to physical pain as well as emotional pain. We create all sorts of ways to avoid it. We turn to drugs or alcohol, we emotionally numb ourselves in order to not feel it.
However, what if going through that pain leads to greater and more wholehearted living?
Why we all need pain…
Going through a divorce, a death, or loss of good health can leave you feeling heartbroken. However, it also opens up a well of emotions that you may not have known existed.
Sometimes, these emotions are uncomfortable and we do not know how to manage them. Therefore we turn to numbing strategies.
Tony Adams wrote an article entitled, “Why we all need pain.” In this article, he explains how pain is a sign for us to turn inward and discover how it is affecting us.
The way out of the pain is to walk through it.
Adams says, “Understanding how to find meaning out of your pain is a way to take a broken heart and turn it into something that will help you grow and expand your ability to love. We have to go through the emotions of shock, denial, hurt and anger. But eventually, there is acceptance.”
Using your hurt to find even more meaning out of life as Adams discusses, allows you to live whole-heartedly even after tragedy. Instead of letting fear and hurt control your life, you are letting love and vulnerability shine forth.
Chelsey Beauchamp, MS
GROW Counseling
