Painful Emotions and Experiences as Teachers.
Our greatest teachers are often the experiences we don't want. Whether it be the death of a loved one, a traumatic event, depression, states of anxiety, the ending of a relationship or the inevitability of death on the horizon.
Our inner experience of life when living in the mind consists of wants and don't wants, of pushing away and grasping at but either way the experiences we don't want still happen. We all die, no matter how much we cling to life, we all have painful emotions no matter how much we only want to feel positive.
Life has a natural cycle, which includes the day and the night, the darkness and the light, the positive and negative, life and death. We continuously resist one, and crave the other. This is like saying I want it to be always daylight, and something in us believes that maybe, just maybe one day if I pretend hard enough I will be able to make the sun shine 24/7.
Its a futile attempt at controlling the flow of life, as without the darkness we wouldn't appreciate the sun. Contrast is what gives life its depth.
This resistance we have to painful experiences, circumstances and emotions is a major cause of our suffering. They can be our biggest teacher, their teaching is non resistance, they are teaching us surrender.
If we can step into our experience fully. Welcome it without any reservation of expecting it or wanting it to be different, we will touch on a deep sense of wellbeing that is present within every experience, no matter how painful. Our essence, is always ok.
Sooner or later, we will bring a "Yes" to life. A Yes to the pain and the hurt, a yes to the trauma and despair, a yes to loving and grieving deeply, even a yes to the resistance.
Bow to your pain, bow to the darkness and the light. Both are whole and complete. You may as well, because they are happening either way :)
Peace,
Matt Nettleton
www.mattnettleton.com