Heartspoken Moment: Lean Into Pain

Introducing Heartspoken Moments: short reflections for those aspiring to live the #HeartspokenLife.

Watch and listen to this Heartspoken Moment or scroll down to read it below:

Lean Into Pain

Meditation masters teach us not to resist emotional pain. Acknowledge it. Dive into it as into a wave coming towards you. Let it flow past and know it is part of being alive. The alternative is death or numbness.

What we resist consumes us and can destroy us. Zen masters proclaim the power of letting go. Stoic philosophers teach us to release anything we can’t control (and they say the only thing we can control is our minds). Christians have a slogan, “Let go and let God.” Catherine Marshall’s “Prayer of Relinquishment” has been shared worldwide.

I have experienced emotional pain in the past that I stubbornly nursed along until it became a heavy burden out of proportion to the original cause of the pain. The story I told myself was that I had been wronged, disrespected, and misunderstood. I ran that clip over and over in my mind. I rehearsed what I should have said…what I would say the next time I had the chance…words that would make that person realize how wrong they’d been.

This harmed no one but me.

As I understood the principle of letting go—and reframed the way I looked at that person and the situation—I was able to release the pain and the hurt and watch it float away like clouds on a breeze. What remained was space…space for in my head for peace and space in my heart for love.

You can’t control what others say or do. All you can control is how you choose to receive it and react to it.

This is not easy, but it’s Truth.