Pain is full of information about what is wrong and what is needed. Staying with pain can be a powerful tool. By alleviating it too quickly, the chance to study the underlying core beliefs is lost and old patterns go unchanged.

All of us avoid contact with discomfort by creating noise in the form of distractions and diversions. By focusing elsewhere, we’re able to temporarily turn the volume down on painful feelings. There is no shame in this. It’s a self-protective function.

It takes courage and heart to face pain.  During difficult times, these qualities can be a challenge to find.  In such cases, it is not unusual to borrow another’s compassion until we are able to resource it within ourselves. Therapy is good example of this type of “borrowing”, as is reaching out to a friend for comfort.

There is strength and meaning to be gained in sitting with suffering. All too often, we lose the ability to turn compassionately toward ourselves in difficult moments. When we are able to do so in the presence of a compassionate other, as in therapy, we remember how to love ourselves.

By unflinchingly holding company and deeply empathizing with our pain, this “other” broadens our being by helping us make contact with the hidden resources of our jeweled Self. It requires nothing short of a leap of faith that we are larger than our pain…which we are.