Inspired by Pain

Why is it that we wait for pain to invade our lives before we decide to make the changes we so desperately know we need to make? This has proven to be true in all areas of our lives for years. For example take the environment, we don’t give it any thought until it is hurting our pocket book, and then we decide we need to do something about the damage we are causing. If only we had given it the respect it had deserved all along we would not be were we are, we would not be paying the price for our mistakes.
In so many ways we are ruled by our heads rather than our hearts. We are all about instant gratification, I want what I want, and I want it now. The relationship, the car, the beautiful body. The problem is that so often when we get what we wanted it doesn’t make us happy, or we find out if isn’t good for us, or even worse, causes damage to ourselves or the environment. When will we learn? When will we have had enough of the pain to inspire us to live from the heart?
Since I have been through the process of being inspired by pain enough times in my life I now see it in the actions of others around me. My career now encompasses lending a healing hand to those in pain, coaching, and empowering people to make changes for the better. I love what I do, I love the gifts I have been handed. What I don’t enjoy so much is watching people hit their heads against a brick wall, just like I did. I suppose we all have our own way of learning, our own time lines, but why always to the point of pain?
I figure if I go through my day with positive inspiring thoughts, it will not only affect my day, it will also affect those I encounter and interact with. I am an avid face booker, I use this media to promote my business. I can’t tell you how many people contact me wanting to know about my services and how I can help them with the pain in their lives. Once they find out it will cost them a little money to get the required help, the pain seems to have disappeared. I then see through their posts how their lives continue to spiral downward, and while I offer words of wisdom and support, they continue on the path to pain. I notice a few who state they have turned a new leaf, this time they are going to do it different, and they are more positive for a few weeks. Until they get the next distraction or bump in the road and revert back to their old ways. On goes the mask as they travel down the road most traveled. Pretending the pain was never there in the first place.
If they only knew what a simple process it is to look at their pain, acknowledge it, accept it, heal it and release it really is, I know they would do it. What stops the flow of inspiration to really change? Fear. What is fear? Our thoughts telling us this is going to hurt, this is going to take forever, you don’t need to do that, you will never be able to figure it all out. Do any of those thoughts sound familiar? I’ve heard them. I’ve thought them. I’ve followed them. I’ve lived them, and at the end of the road all they are is thoughts, an illusion our mind makes up to keep us from feeling good. It’s true our ego mind wants us to feel separate from our dreams, our goals, it wants us to believe we can’t make it, that way it can continue to control us.
What is it that we want in life? To feel loved, connected to others, to fit in, to contribute, to be healthy, to love are just a few ideas. So if these are our core values, why do we feel we have to be in pain to slow down enough look at them? Why do we feel so far away from them? Is it that we are too busy looking for that outside of us? Or is it that we were just dealt a bad hand?
What changed my life around was learning that I was responsible for all of this pain I had in my life. That may seem like an awfully big pill to swallow, and it was, but it was also very freeing. After this realization, I also knew I was responsible for and had control over what came into my life from that point forward. When I went through the process(and it is a process) of letting go of the past, I was better able to see what I truly wanted in life. I no longer needed the pain to inspire me to move forward. I simply slowed my mind and listened to that quiet voice inside. I could dream big dreams and know they were all possible.
I could now use my dreams to inspire me, to teach me. I had now learned the lessons that kept me in pain. I had learned that pain was a choice. I choose to be inspired by my dreams. I choose to live from my heart. What inspires you? When will you let go of the pain?