A woman I have not actually met wrote to me recently in regard to one of my posts that dealt with my physical pain. \u00a0It’s not easy to live with pain of any kind but it does help to talk about it, as I did in that post, and to get feed-back from others who understand. The pain is miraculously lessened when we do this even if we have different kinds of conditions. \u00a0The “shared experience” simply makes whatever we are undergoing more tolerable. \u00a0It’s not that misery loves company but rather, \u00a0just knowing that someone else cares and is “holding us up” toward a place free of pain makes all the difference. \u00a0That’s what her note did for me.<\/p>\n
We do so much for one another’s humanity when we listen if the call comes to us. \u00a0And the call can come in many forms. \u00a0Being a witness to one another’s journey is the finest gift we can offer, bar none. Lest I be misunderstood, the pain need not be physical for us to serve as “healers” of sorts. \u00a0Being present to the presence of others<\/strong><\/em> is the healing balm. \u00a0We all need the balm, if not today we may need it tomorrow. \u00a0Give it away when possible and it will come back to you when needed.<\/p>\n Many of us grew up in an era when you didn’t let others know about your pain, particularly if it was mental or emotional. \u00a0But suffering in silence exaggerates the pain. \u00a0This is still a common response for much of the population; however, many who share my recovery journey have learned the value of allowing others to know, thus to share the pain that lives in the interior spaces of our lives. \u00a0And what we have learned is that the pain recedes just a bit every time we let some one else’s heart touch ours.<\/p>\n It’s really not so difficult to let others come into our private world but a decision first has to be made. \u00a0Do we truly want a lessening of the pain that’s hindering our lives? \u00a0Saying yes may change every thing about our experiences and we may not be fully prepared for this. \u00a0It’s wise to consider this carefully. \u00a0The pain may be physical or emotional. \u00a0It matters not. If we are in pain, it will dominate us if we let it. \u00a0But we do have the capacity to change how it affects us. That’s the incredible gift we are being given every day. \u00a0The choice is ours.<\/p>\n I know that talking with others about the \u00a0pain I have experienced over the decades of my life, pain that has been physical as well as emotional, has allowed me to see that when we name something<\/strong>, we reduce its grip on us. \u00a0Consider what you need to talk about, what you need to “name,” and ask a friend or even a stranger for a minute of her time. \u00a0Experience the freedom that I promise awaits you.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A woman I have not actually met wrote to me recently in regard to one of my posts that dealt with my physical pain. \u00a0It’s not easy to live with pain of any kind but it does help to talk about it, as I did in that post, and to get feed-back from others who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2398","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-karens-musings"],"yoast_head":"\n