passing it on....

[RisingPhoenix]

Healing With Hurt
Using Your Pain To Help Others

Pain is a fact of being and one that permeates all of our lives to some degree. Since the hurt we feel may be a part of the experiences that have touched us most deeply, we are often loathe to let it go. It is frequently easier to keep our pain at our sides, where it acts as a shield that shelters us from others and gives us an identity-that of victim-from which we can draw bitter strength. However, pain's universality can also empower us to use our hurt to help others heal. Since no pain is any greater or more profound than any other, what you feel can give you the ability to help bring about the recovery of individuals whose hurts are both similar to and vastly different from your own. You can channel your pain into transformative and healing love that aids you in helping individuals on a one-to-one basis and spreading a tide of curative energy throughout the world.

The capacity to heal others evolves naturally within those who are ready to disassociate themselves from their identity as victims. In fact, the simple decision to put aside the pain we have carried is what grants us the strength to redeem that pain through service. There are many ways to use the hurt you feel to help others. Your pain gives you a unique insight into the minds of people who have experienced trauma and heartache. You can draw from the wellspring of strength that allowed you to emerge on the other side of a painful experience and pass that strength to individuals still suffering from their wounds. You may be able to council individuals in need by showing them the coping methods that have helped you survive or simply by offering sympathy. A kinship can develop that allows you to relate more closely with those you are trying to aid and comfort.

Helping others can be a restorative experience that makes your own heart grow stronger. In channeling your pain into compassionate service and watching others successfully recover, you may feel a sense of euphoria that leads to increased feelings of self-worth and optimism. Your courageous decision to reach out to others can be the best way to declare to yourself and the world that your pain didn't defeat you, and in fact it helped you heal.

From DailyOm

[jlo34]

Great passage and very true. I'll never forget when I was revealing a very painful piece of my past to a sponsor many, many years ago and she said something to the effect that...perhaps I'll be able to use that pain to help someone else recover from it. I thought I was so unique...and boom. I can't tell you how many people I've related that experience to now.

So many people, sadly, that CAN relate to that experience and feel their own pain. I guess, in a way, the pain was worth it so that I can help others. Seems like a strange way to look at it...but today, I've forgiven God and myself.

I have learned and realized that I don't always have a part in things that have happened to me. Some things I truly am an innocent victim. Some things I can't be held responsible for. That was SOOOOO freeing for me. I am so grateful for my sponsor giving me that key; without that key I wasn't able to accept or forgive.

I am grateful that I can use painful events in my life to help others overcome their own painful events. And so thankful that others have shared their own painful events with me to help me get through my own. What a wonderful, loving circle I'm part of, in AA.

Jen

[brigid]

I have found people continually that I have been able to share my hurt with and they and I have benefitted in the sharing. I have often wondered if my cross to bear was so that I could help others, that is probably quite a warped way to look at it all, but it does sometimes help me feel ok about the hurt that I have suffered.

Thanks for the post,
lots of love,
Brigid