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A strange thing happened, that I thought was worth passing on in the spirit of listening to the universes ‘hints’ and sharing the wisdom.

A few days ago my good friend Karen Longhurst gave me some cd’s by Buddhist monk Rebina Courtin. I listened to them on the way down to Coffs for our Winnebago xmas bash.

I was quite inspired by her down to earth perspective, but she said something that really got my attention.

She explained that if we went to the gym and did a big workout we would come home exhausted bedraggled, sweating and sore all over. We would then proceed to have a warm bath and sit with a grin on our face. The pain being the marker of a job well done.

Being an ex bodybuilder I related to this image totally, remembering times when I would relish literally not being able to stand up the next day, and would compete with the other guys in the gym to see who could throw up from exertion or crumple from pain first.

Rebina went on to challenge why we didn’t see our emotional pains in the same positive light. As emotional or spiritual growing pains, to be relished as potential for growth, rather than lamented, pushed away, buried or ignored.

She went on to explained that all our emotional pains are simply our mind trying desperately to bring us back into balance with the reality of what IS. (in a similar way i mentioned in my piece on depression a few weeks ago)

Think about the pain of depression, sadness, guilt, hurt or anger as a mental alarm trying to ground you to the fact that your view of the world is a fantasy .

When someone leaves you. The pain forces you to bring your imagination of what the relationship was, in line with ther REALITY of what IS. The second your thoughts become genuinely congruent with what IS, the pain miraculously disappears.

Ouch The next day I decided to get back into some much missed research and reading. But rather than start something new I thought I would catch up  on the raft of New Scientist and American Scientist Mind Magazines that had finally caught up to me from our old postal address. As well as re delve into a couple of books I had put down mid flow, about the time we first hit the road.

As I settled into bed surrounded by all this wonderful wisdom (yes im a closet nerd) I quite by chance turned straight to the page on the latest research into the placebo effect on pain. This hard core science article went onto totally back up what rabina had explained Buddha was teaching some 2500 of years ago.

I was a little shocked at the coincidence of finding this article amongst the thousands that lay beside me, but put it down to chance, picking up next a book I had left half read about a year ago.

As I turned the page to the crease mark I had left (yes it’s a bad habit, but since I scribble notes on most of my books I figure a few corner creases hardly makes a difference), I realized the very next unread chapter, after the one I had stopped at, was  by Milton Ward on “The Brilliant Function of Pain” reiterating EXACTLY what these other 2 sources had spoken about.

Finally, a little shocked at the ‘coincidence’ I decided to end the night with something more gentle on the soul, and turned to another half read book by Dr Wayne Dyer. And blow me down with a feather, the chapter I had stopped at in this book months ago, was the beginning of the one on emotional pain and our brains ability to see it as a positive force.

So I get the hint!! I am now applying this to any aspect of discomfort, embarrassment, worry, annoyance or pain that pops into my head.

Welcoming it as a teacher. Sitting with it fully and learning from it, rather than trying to dull or ignore it – Sometimes this is hard when you realize a pain is due to your own childish fear or stubbornness. But I truly DO see this like the pain of a work out now. Re building my soul one  OUCH at a time.

I tell you what – It paints my day a whole hell of a lot better than the ‘woeth me, whats it all for, why me’ attitude most of us are used to. In fact its almost turned into a game, to discover what new areas a pain, discomfort, judgment or embarrassment will pop up to reveal a new area of potential growth i can re claim from my old attitude.

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