We are so conditioned to skirt around, find distractions. Diversions. Anything to numb ourselves. 

We construct so many compensations to protect ourselves from hurting. Even at great costs to ourselves and others. 

As our shadows rise more and more, as the dark longs to be freed and the treasures found; the resistance builds, and such tactics become frugal and exhausting. 

Extracting our compensations can unravel all kinds of pain within our body, physically and mentally. And this reaction and process is confronting. It’s the body asking for permission. Pleading for relief. 

Often, the only way to move beyond a challenging circumstance is to head straight for it. Not in an aggressive way, but instead consciously choosing to sit in the pain. Feeling it. Experiencing. Owning it. Acknowledging it, and most importantly accepting it. You will be required you to stop and surrender; to relinquish your arms.

Because feeling the pain ignites your aliveness. It reminds you of your soul’s embodied experience on this earth. And it unearths the nuggets of wisdom that feed our need for a depth of existence that only through awakening we can discover and live. 

Do not turn your back on the pain any longer. For liberation comes through witnessing. And in witnessing, we connect, we love. We remember. We are whole.