The Treasure At the Heart of Pain

"What do you do to escape from emotional pain? Do you drink or eat to excess to keep yourself, keep ridiculously busy, sit around hoping for a better future? It's human nature to do everything you can to avoid turning around and meeting the feelings that arise in you. But here's the problem. These temporary measures simply don't work. Addictions, compulsions, incessant mental spinning. They may dull the pain for a short time, but still it remains, barely below the surface, waiting for you to take a break from all your efforts to avoid it so it can tap you on the shoulder once again. "Remember me?" it says. So must you resign yourself to a lifetime of pain? No, because pain, even though it seems so real, is a thin veil that covers the truth of who you are." A writer shares three practices that have helped her in transforming painful experiences.

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