Where do you hide to isolate your pain?
Who ever told you that pain is shameful, that suffering is a sign of failure and limitations are a sign of inadequacy?
Does being a proper woman require more than anyone can be?
Being a woman is being human enough to write your own description. In your hiding, you are cut off from support, from compassion and connection.
- You have the right to be unsure of yourself.
- You have the right to be too tired.
- You have the right to have a crisis and to suffer with your own pain.
What sends you into hiding must not keep you there.
Listen for another voice that reminds you of how beautifully human you are in your pain and suffering.
Hiding yourself is hiding the sacred, the divine, the purposeful woman that the goddess is calling into being.
Kiss Your Life... 365 Reasons to Love Who You Are
By:Ann Mody Lewis, Ph.D.
Reason: 209 Page: 227
Commentary:
How can we convince ourselves that any 'good' can come from 'pain?'
Survivors give us encouragement but not certainty. Most of us live our lives trying to prevent, avoid or deny that 'pain' has affected us. We cope with 'pain' by 'moving on', 'pushing forward' or 'turning the other cheek.' It usually doesn't occur to us to embrace 'pain' in order to love life!
Men believe that 'pain and gain' are acceptable if they're in the military, business or play sports. Their endurance of 'pain' becomes a sign of their manliness.
Women believe that 'pain and gain' are normal and proof of their dedication, goodness and love.
The way we interpret 'pain' will dictate how we cope with it. Gender conditioning has a 'loud voice' that guides our interpretations.
Though we don't want physical pain, we usually can't deny it's presence for long because our symptoms demand our attention. Emotional pain is another story. From our childhood we train ourselves to tolerate emotional pain we can't control or understand. Those tolerances become obsolete in our adulthood.
Both physical and emotional 'pain' will inevitably have a presence in our lives, as we stumble through loves and ventures. They are NOT a sign of weakness, inadequacy or payback. 'Pain' is simply the forward movement to a 'new maturity.'
When we feel most fragmented by 'pain' is when 'pain' is making us ONE.
This month's conversation is a 'new thinking' that may ease-your-pain. It will include:
- How physical pain is a manifestation of emotional pain.
- How pain humbles us.
- How gender socialization dictates how we cope with pain.
- Why pain shames us.
- Ways pain can teach us.
Let's talk, so we can KISS OUR LIVES!
Ann
