“Pain is the teacher of the soul. If we ignore it, we miss its lessons; if we accept it, we remember ourselves.”
— Carl Gustav Jung
Healing begins the moment we recognize pain and definitively decide to do something about it. When we talk about pain, it's often common to normalize its existence. This isn't a wrong perspective; just as the Buddha said in his first teaching: "There is pain in life." Yes, pain is a fact of life. However, accepting it as permanent and normalizing it—that's where the real misconception begins.
Because pain is not permanent. Pain can be transformed. Change happens moment by moment. However, this change is so internal, so wise, that sometimes we don't notice it. Therefore, we think that pain diversifies. Yet pain is a single emotion — it is the meanings we assign to it that diversify it.
Often, because we can't bear the pain, we deny its existence. We ignore it, we suppress it. This suppression intensifies the pain because, in fact, at that moment we are denying our inner strength.
While trying to escape from pain, we silently and unconsciously accept that we have succumbed to it. Yet we are beings who can both suffer and overcome it.
It is only when we acknowledge the existence of suffering that the wisdom within us reveals itself.
Don't we notice it? When someone else suffers, a strength rises within us. We offer advice, encouragement, and provide comfort. The compassion we show them is actually a reflection of our own inner resources.
Şifa, işte bu farkındalıkla başlar:
✔️ Acının varlığını inkâr etmeyerek,
✔️ Onunla kalmaya cesaret ederek,
✔️ Onun yanında içsel kaynaklarımızı da hatırlayarak…
Patience, understanding, tolerance, courage, wisdom, joy, our principles, our inner values… All these resources already exist within us. But they only surface when we dare to confront pain.
Pain and inner values are not separate; they are like two powerful siblings. Pain does not deny itself. Our inner values also act courageously to soothe it.
Healing begins when we realize that all these values exist together. Healing begins when we decide to stop bandaging the wound and and walk toward happiness and inner freedom.
Healing begins when we know ourselves and reconnect with our inner strength. Rumi described this very well with the words, "Wounds are where the light within leaks out."
And now I'll leave you with a few questions;
What's stopping you from owning your pain?
How many times have you chosen to suppress your pain instead of sitting down and talking to it?
How close are you to healing, and how much confidence do you have in your inner strength?
If you listen to the voice of pain, what would it want to tell you?
I hope your answers will shed light on this for you.
With Peace and Love
Sibel KAvunoğlu
