Pain is the Great Awakener

'A Light in the Darkness' - A photograph by Brad Carr.

Pain is the great awakener. A catalyst for change. If we find the courage to relinquish control of our emotions, let go when we find ourselves desperately trying to hold on, and allow ourselves to deeply feel what is within, then we can make our pain the most incredible gift, and become alchemists of the modern world; transmuting our pain into beauty, and bringing healing to the world at large.

So many of us spend our entire lives running away from our pain. We have a tendency to seek pleasure as an escape, turning instead towards sex, drugs, books, the news, gossip, and countless other addictions as a way of masking our pain. What we fail to realise, all too often, is that the sharpest blades are forged in the hottest fires. It is pain that strengthens us.

Many of us have spent the entirety of our lives believing that we are fundamentally broken on the inside without hope of repair. We may have felt as though we have never truly fit in anywhere, and that no one has ever fully understood the depths of our pain and suffering.

It is our own pain that kept us isolated and alienated throughout our youth. We might have believed that we are the only ones to feel such depths and intensity of emotions. Those of us who fully expressed our emotions, were so often labelled as crazy, so we learnt to suppress what we felt from a young age, choosing instead to wear a mask and pretend that we are happy and joyful so that we didn’t become the target for our peers’ judgment and ridicule.

If you were anything like me, you had a different face that you wore in private, and it was one that was often marred with a deep sadness. My soul was longing for true and authentic expression. To escape my own sadness and pain, and silence the cries of my soul, I disappeared into various worlds of fantasy within computer games. I ran from it until it eventually caught up with me. It turns out that pain has an abundant source of energy. What if we could find the right tools to harness this energy and use it instead of it consuming us?

Isn’t it a shame that, because of our pain, we keep our most authentic selves and our truest emotions hidden from the world? What might a world look like if we were to reveal more of how we were really feeling to each other? What might the world look like if we all recognised the pain within ourselves, and, therefore, could recognise it within each other? Would that not then lead to a more compassionate, sensitive, and loving world as a whole?

Anyone who fails to acknowledge the pain that they have felt within their own lives since they entered this existence, will remain weak at their core. If we are to become like the trees, strong from the inside out, and form a deep sense of unity like a forest network, then we must embrace our individual and collective pain, and allow it to strengthen us.

For those of us who have witnessed great pain, great change is made possible. For those who have witnessed great pain hold an immensity of power within, for pain, when harnessed and tamed, is a beautifully potent force.

True freedom from pain comes when we acknowledge that we still hold pain in our hearts, no matter how whole and healed we might think we are. Freedom from pain comes with acceptance. It is when we recognise and accept that pain still exists within us, that we can then spend our days transcending the pain, instead of living in avoidance of it, pretending that it isn’t there until, one day, when we are most unaware, it decides to creep up on us and cripple us from the blindside.

To transcend our pain, and become the masters of it, we must find an outlet for it. This is where creativity can help us on our journeys. To create something from the very source of our pain brings liberation like nothing else can. Pain, therefore, becomes a driving force for great purpose. It is the fuel to the flame that burns inside of each of us.

With that being said, I offer you some questions for your reflection. Will you join forces with me and visit the source of your own pain to awaken to the beauty of this precious life? Will you fan the dwindling embers within and set your beacon alight so that we can burn together and illuminate this world that often seems to be shrouded in darkness? The future of our species depends on us standing up and taking action, and that action starts with us looking within.