Pain comes in so many different forms, but we’ve all experienced it at some level, in some manifestation. But we have a choice – we can continue to dwell and live in that negative emotional space, or we can acknowledge the pain as a fact, and see the good that it created in our lives. Because if you are going to blame someone for the pain they caused, then you better blame them for all the good that came out of it too. If you’re going to give them credit for everything that is so messed up, then you have to give them credit for everything that is great. Because life is not so simple – it’s not binary.
Take, for instance, my mom. My mom was mentally ill in my childhood which caused me a lot of struggle. But she also loved me dearly. If I’m going to blame her for the pain and suffering she caused, then I also must blame her for the beauty in my life. I blame her for my capacity to feel and to care. I blame her for my insatiable hunger to end suffering for any human I can. If she had been the mother I had wanted, I wouldn’t be the woman that I am today.
"We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.
— Joseph Campbell
Imagine – if life wasn’t happening to you, but for you? That even the most painful periods of your life happened so you could become who you are meant to be? How does that shift in perspective change your outlook? What does it do to the stories that you have built up that very likely tear you down and hold you back?
Nothing can change the pain that you have experienced in the past. There are things that happen in life that are tragic and unfair. There are people that come into your life that hurt you. And you may see them as awful. But they are there to serve you. They are there to help you tap into the person you truly are. There are there to help you become even greater. And they are there to help you become who you were meant to be.
