Life is full of problems. And we humans love to solve them.
Quite frankly, we do it well. You could safely say that we are professional problem solvers trying to eliminate suffering at all costs.
Yet, little do we know that simultaneously we also create problems. In fact, most of them. Particularly the ugly murky ones that have everything to do with the reality we live in.
The truth is, most human problems are related to that of emotion. And these are the ones we don’t like to deal with because they involve the greatest amount of pain–the unresolved conflict that resides in our internal world.
Our earliest experiences become the stories we carry with us throughout our lives–as our ancestral demands become the fabric of our being. And while we know they’re there, we hide from these painful truths.
The trickiest part about our emotional wounds is that we become blind to them. Yet, slowly they seep into our lives and create madness all around us–effecting how we show up in the world.
Whenever pain rises to the surface, we avoid acknowledging it because the cost is too high–the threat of taboo too great.
So we live in denial, terrified of judgment–keeping ourselves locked in a prison as we continue to live our lives based on other people’s opinions.
To soothe our pain, we treat it the best way we know how–the band-aid approach.
We quickly replace our lover or job. We become slaves to our addictions–work more, eat more, drink more, spend more, chase love–in hopes that someone or something from the outside world will save us from ourselves.
But our gross attempt at hacking our emotional wounds fails and our problems perpetuate.
Completely numbing ourselves–we become hedonists, workaholics or robots.
We surrender. We settle. Our lives prove mundane, predictable and mediocre at best.
And yet still, we rationalize and tell ourselves that nothing is perfect–and we accept our sad realities. We continue on in survivalist mode, remaining a victim.
We quiet the hopeful romantic inside, let our creative artist sleep–and hide our gifts from ourselves and the world.
But we can only run for so long until our emotional problems turn our life upside down.
So we must ask ourselves…What if facing the pain of our darkest demons is actually the answer to redemption?
What if instead of seeking a quick-fix, we did the real work of resolving our painful emotional wounds? What if this was the path to ultimate freedom–to the everlasting peace that leads us to nirvana?
What if….