Some painful feelings this week lead me to read "pain, the price of freedom" in The Untethered Soul. What I read moved me and inspired me to face my pains (all of them, the little pains and the big pains). In a nutshell, there is pain inside of us (Adya says that we were very open and vulnerable as children and we got wounded so we learned to close up around the pain). Most of us go to great efforts to try to avoid the pain (by looking a certain way, talking a certain way, having enough people around, keeping busy...). Instead of letting this need to avoid pain run our lives (remember the "inner thorn" analogy with the complicated apparatus to keep from getting hurt in TUS?), we can choose to face the pain.
"To live at this level of freedom, you must learn not to be afraid of inner pain and disturbance. As long as you are afraid of the pain, you will try to protect yourself from it. The fear will make you do that. If you want to be free, simply view inner pain as a temporary shift in your energy flow." (TUS, p. 103)
The pain is just temporary...if we allow ourselves to feel it, it will pass.
"If life does something that causes a disturbance inside of you, instead of pulling away, let it pass through you like the wind." (TUS, p. 104)
Remember that "On the other side of the pain is ecstasy." (TUS, p. 105)
"You must be willing at all times, in all circumstances, to remain conscious in the face of pain and to work with your heart by relaxing and remaining open." (TUS, p. 106)
I have been noticing numerous fleeting situations that have touched my inner pain. Some examples are: watching my son do (scary) dives during his spring-board diving class, worrying if I "said the right thing" during a recent conversation, financial concerns... There are so many opportunities to notice and release pain throughout the day.
I remind myself that the pain is only a shift in my energy. The energy flow will return if I relax my heart. This is how you untether your soul.
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