“These pains you feel are messengers. Listen to them.” ~ Rumi

How do we escape pain?

It’s something most of us struggle with every day. The fear of pain is our most powerful drive. We will do far more to avoid pain than to be happy.

I have close friends who are renowned teachers and truly enlightened beings. But they are as human as anyone else. I have been with them as they have gone through profound pain and challenges in their lives. I have never heard of a genuinely awakened person who does not still have times of deep uncertainty and sadness.

I have learned so many tools that have helped me evolve, transform and expanded my awareness. But still things will happen that I am not prepared for. Without warning life can crush me in an instant and leave me crumpled on the ground.

I don’t avoid it. I have learned to stop and allow myself to really feel what is pulling me under. I could easily lessen the blow, even shift myself away from sadness completely. But are we here to be free from pain? Or are we here to experience suffering, lost love, mistakes, misalignment, being human.

When I get back up I may be shaken, wounded, scarred. But changed.

When Rumi lost his beloved Shams, he mourned and cried for days in deep despair. When he finally reached the bottom of his pain, he emerged transformed, and began reciting some of the greatest poetry ever known.

We do so many things to avoid feeling. But what if in avoiding the deepest pain, we also avoid the deepest transformations.

How do we escape pain?

If you want to really live, you don’t.

“There is a secret medicine given only to those who hurt so hard they can’t hope. The hopers would feel slighted if they knew.” ~ Rumi

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Ed: Sara Crolick