Seeing The Light at the End of the Tunnel

Jun 8th, 2008 | By Suzanne | Category: Gratitude | |

When you find yourself in a dark place in life, your worst fears realized, your options seemingly gone - there is hope if you can realize that you are also in the best position - finally - to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Pain, both physical and emotional, is a messenger, not a problem. It tells us something is wrong. When you step in a hole and break your ankle, pain is the messenger saying, “Hey there - don’t use that foot - it’s broken.” When you are unhappy and miserable, pain is the messenger saying, “Hey there - what you’re doing isn’t working for you.” Without pain, think how dangerous we’d be to ourselves! But we can be, anyway, can’t we? Look how we like to ignore pain, particularly the emotional kind, or perceive it to be the problem itself, not the messenger for the real problem.

You might think me nuts to suggest you be grateful for pain, but I recommend it. To the degree that you feel lost, hurt, or angry, I suggest you be grateful. Grateful for the signal, grateful for the awareness it brings, grateful for the opportunity to address what’s not working in your life. Pain is not the problem - whatever is causing the pain is the problem.

They say it’s always darkest just before dawn, and I tend to agree, at least where the emotional pain we experience in life is concerned. So if you’re experiencing pain, heed the message and take the opportunity to look for and address the source of your pain, not the pain itself. While it might on the surface appear to be something or someone else causing the pain, usually it’s not. Usually, the source of the pain is somewhere in our expectations, our thoughts, our beliefs and the decisions we’ve made as a result. Once you recognize that, you can also see the light at the end of the tunnel because your expectations, thoughts, beliefs and decisions are within your control. You can change them!


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4 comments
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  1. Gravatar Tom Volkar / Delightful Work
    June 9th, 2008 11:28 am :

    Suzanne I love this statement. “Pain is not the problem - whatever is causing the pain is the problem.” Once again you cut to the chase on a very enlightening topic. When we look at what we need to be looking at the answer or at least a choice of answers appear. But when we keep looking at the pain or the problem - that’s all we see and all we get.

    Tom Volkar / Delightful Works last blog post..Get Real about Your Work

  2. Gravatar Tracy
    June 9th, 2008 2:11 pm :

    Suzanne, to date, this is by far my favorite blog post of yours!! I can only imagine by hearing this and applying it to life starting years ago how much time I would have saved myself. Where were you when i was 22? LOL Your words are ALWAYS so inspiring and I am so lucky to have you in my life!

  3. Gravatar Patricia - Spiritual Journey Of A Lightworker
    June 11th, 2008 1:17 am :

    I read somewhere that pain is our resistance to what is. If that is true, when we stop resisting, the pain stops. Great article, Suzanne.

    Patricia - Spiritual Journey Of A Lightworkers last blog post..Why Do We Get Stuck In The Blame?

  4. Gravatar Christa
    August 18th, 2008 11:46 am :

    You wrote “grateful for the awareness (pain) brings” and I couldn’t agree more. We learn lessons from the good and the bad (both good and bad are perceived and who judges good and bad but that’s content for another blog).

    I’ve learned some interesting lessons in the last week and looking at the SOURCE of the pain is definitely the way to go.

    Great blog Suz!

    Christa www.giggleon.com

    Christas last blog post..Laughter Yoga - CNN Report

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