Pain is a Doorway

It's okay to feel tender.

It's okay to want to spend time alone.

It's okay to admit that your feelings are 'negative.'

I've never been more acutely aware of my own inner drive to feel positive than I am right now.

I'm wrestling with my certainty that all is well, my easy connection with the Life Force of Love, and my feelings that things 'should' be different. 

Living with complicated grief - or loss of any kind - stirs up messy feelings within a culture that is not comfortable with them. 

Those feelings are a gift!

Feeling messy emotions means we're alive, we're growing, we're learning, and we're human. 

There are many overt and covert spiritual messages that tell us we 'should' not feel anger, resentment, sadness, or any other form of negativity. 

We've been taught that our feelings of negativity mean we're out of alignment with our Higher Self; we're not seeing or feeling things the way Source does - and that's wrong. 

We've been taught by religion to 'turn the other cheek,' to 'offer it up,' and to forgive.

What if the only way to true forgiveness is through feeling the pain, the injustice, and all the messy feelings? 

I've come to believe that our painful feelings are as valuable and 'holy' as those of joy, laughter, and bliss. 

The intention is not to wallow in the mud but to use pain as a doorway to healing. 

By diving into the pain, we can identify what our inner child longed for and didn't receive, then we can embrace her and allow Love to flow through us to her. We experience a new depth of love for ourselves, which flows out to everyone we meet. 

If we rush through the pain or pretend it's not there, we lose the opportunity to heal. 

Through healing our wounded hearts, we not only set ourselves free, but we set the other person free too. 

If you're feeling tender, don't rush through it. Dive into it with the intention of using that pain to heal, transform and grow. 

I celebrate that by doing so, growth is inevitable. 

You're alive, you're learning, you're growing.

In a culture that values strength and busyness, daring to admit that you're feeling fragile is an act of courageous rebellion. 

Like the unfurling fern, we too will unfold when the time is right. 

We may want to hasten the process, but we cannot. 

Be where you are.

Be who you are.

That's enough. 

You are enough.