Pain

Dear Seekers,

Many of you have asked: Is what I am feeling normal? How much sadness is "too much?" Being in emotional pain can feel unbearable and wanting to know if this is just a fact of life or if there is an option for alleviating suffering is a healthy curiosity. And yet underneath these questions, I also hear a statement of loneliness that sounds something like: I feel alone in my experience, and I wonder if there's anyone else that can understand me or who can help bear this weight.

Research shows that loneliness strongly predicts the development of pain. Many of us have been taught that our hurt, physical or emotional, is a burden to others and therefore we conceal it. It's actually the concealing process (whether that be drinking it away, smiling it away, shopping it away, working it away) that causes us the most suffering. Pain demands to be felt and it will find a way to express itself. In many cases, it's the cover up, not the pain itself, that separates us from ourselves and therefore others.