For those who know me well, I have just had two years of quite intense physical ailments and pain–nothing life threatening, thank goodness, but certainly challenging and uncomfortable and demanding attention. The first year, now dubbed “The Year of the Gut,” entailed about a year of digestive cramps, intestinal flora crashing and distress, giardia, and an appendectomy. This most recent year, I came down with a severe case of sciatica that left me at first nearly unable to walk, followed by 3 weeks of hobbling with a cane, to a recent cortisone injection at a spinal nerve root. Let’s hope this works!
I have come to the conclusion through these “problems” pain can goad one to change habits and patterns that limit growth. It can motivate the willingness to let go of obsolete or limiting patterns, to search for alternatives, and to experiment with new ways of doing things to see what works best, or at least better. Pain makes this necessary if one wants to have a “normal” life again.
Pain can bring about positive change.
I can have gratitude to pain for helping me learn. (And I can have immense gratitude to all my family and friends, healers, and spiritual guides who have helped me along the way.) But I do not need to hold onto the pain anymore.
I can try to look for more subtle signs that things need to change to grow and prosper physically, intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually.
Maybe in the future, I won’t have to go to such great pains to learn!
The Every Day Yogi 