How To Use Pain To Become Better
How to use physical pain and disability to become a better human and serve the world
Last week, I had the opportunity to play beach volleyball with individuals who have gone through some challenging times in their lives.
It was not easy for these individuals. Physical pain and disability can greatly limit us and prevent us from living and experiencing this world to the fullest and in the most beautiful way.
And yet, despite all the struggles and challenges, these individuals chose a different path.
They did not allow physical disability to mark them and “ruin their lives”.
Instead, they embraced their condition and used it as a tool and catalyst for personal development and growth.
I learned a lot from these individuals.
Their positivity, energy and desire are enviable and virally contagious.
When you are with these people, you feel their kindness, warmth and loving soul, which are so rare nowadays.
Among the greatest realizations was the fact that regardless of what we have gone through and survived in life, we always have two options:
We can allow the traumatic experience to mark us and take away our better selves and let it “ruin our lives”.
Or we take the responsibility and embrace what happened to us, reframe the story that it happened for us and go on a journey to accept it, heal the trauma that’s left and commit to use the wound as a tool and catalyst that will help and enable us to become better and to be of service to the world around us.
Rumi, a 13th-century Persian poet, once famously wrote:
“The wound is the place where the light enters.”
When we go through any form of suffering, there’s always a hidden gem in there somewhere — even if it’s very hard to see it that first…
We can always transform the pain into growth. We can take that pain, suffering and wounding and use it to serve the world around us. We can go through that fire and emerge on the other side as a better person.
The road might not be easy. There will be lots of ups & downs. The conventional treatments may not help us, so we might be forced to look for alternative cures and healing tools.
But that’s okay: it’s all part of the journey.
As long as we’re moving forward, we’re making progress, getting better and stronger — physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually!
Take the tough experience and let it transform you.
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Love and take care of yourself, forget about worries and enjoy life! ✌
~ Jani ❤