People have a need to feel their pain.
Very often pain is the beginning of a great deal of awareness.
As an energy, it awakens consciousness.
--Arnold Mindell

The Barbara I met at my high school reunion was not the same person I had known a decade earlier. A sensitive and caring person stood in the place of the driven and manipulative individual I remembered. Her soft gaze spoke of a new compassion and understanding. I asked a friend of Barbaras how this transformation occurred. Its very simple, the friend replied. Shes been to hell and back.

Barbaras story is universal. It is the experience of pain - physical, emotional, or spiritual - that inspires us to start the search for something more. Many great teachers and healers began their spiritual quest as a way to cope with the pain of an illness, divorce, or similar loss. This discomfort forced them to abandon the status quo and take a new and uncharted course, a course that led to a major transformation.

Is pain the only way we can grow and transform? Not necessarily. As we work on ourselves and learn from our mistakes, the ups and downs of life become less intense. Lessons come in a more gentle manner. Once the heart is opened, it takes less effort to keep it that way.

You are moving to that point where joy and bliss are all-encompassing. Until then, your pain can be your greatest teacher.