Recycle Your Pain

One of my beloved teachers, Joanna Macy, have said that our pain is BIODEGRADABLE. As we recycle other used resources into usable materials, we can also "recycle" our pain.

​Whether it is the pain of loosing someone or something dear to us, grieving decreasing abilities due to the old age or disease, lamenting over lost opportunities or past mistakes, swallowing in the agony of lonelyness and isolation, or feeling simply the pain for the sufferings of the world.

Pain, when locked into our hearts, denied or shied away has a tendency to "rotten", weaken us, pollute our inner and outer environments, and lead to the wars within ourselves or with others.
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“Pain for the world is not only natural, it is a necessary component of our healing. As in all organisms, pain has a purpose: it is a warning signal, designed to trigger remedial action. It is not to be banished by injections of optimism or sermons on “positive thinking.” It is to be named and validated as a healthy, normal human response to the situation we find ourselves in. Faced and experienced, its power can be used. As the frozen defences of the psyche thaw, new energies and intelligence are released.“-Joanna Macy

When we suppress our emotions, we diminish our empathy, imagination, intuition, and our connection to higher consciousness. We rob ourselves of life-force, joy, creativity, meaning, and purpose.
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We also lose touch with our inner wisdom and become enslaved to the chaos of our wild, untamed minds—more difficult to control than the wind itself.

“When we are fearful, and the odds are running against us, it is easy to let the heart and mind go numb. Because the perils facing us are so pervasive, and yet often hard to see, this numbing touches us all. No one is unaffected by it. No one is immune to doubt, denial, or disbelief about the severity of our situation—and about our power to change it. Yet of all the dangers we face, from climate chaos to nuclear warfare, none is so great as the deadening of our response. The numbing of mind and heart is already upon us—in the diversions, we create for ourselves as individuals and nations, in the fights we pick, the aims we pursue, the stuff we buy.” – Joanna Macy

​I remember Joanna Macy saying that our hearts can never truly break—they can only break open.

​This insight has profoundly shifted my relationship with pain and grief. It has transformed from burying the pain and locking it away in the darkest corners of my heart, to welcoming and embracing grief as a natural part of our human experience in these material bodies.

“Grief has never been private; it has always been communal. Subconsciously, we are awaiting the presence of others, before we can feel safe enough to drop to our knees on the holy ground of sorrow.”
-Francis Weller

From another beloved teacher of mine, Pernille Plantener, I learned that when we are lovingly acknowledged and accompanied in our genuine emotions, something profound happens. This companionship and validation can provide the courage needed to face our pain with awareness and compassion, often resulting in greater ease, increased spaciousness, and sometimes even a complete transformation of our inner state.

This can serve us as a gateway, fostering a deeper connection with others, the world around us, and the Supreme. We come to understand that we are not alone and that so many of us share similar feelings. By embracing our pain, we also tap into a deep care and love for our world and fellow humans, potentially overcoming the illusion that we are separate from one another, the world, and Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

“There is a brokenness
out of which comes the unbroken,
a shatteredness
out of which blooms the unshatterable.
There is a sorrow
beyond all grief which leads to joy
and a fragility
out of whose depths emerges strength.
There is a hollow space
too vast for words
through which we pass with each loss,
out of whose darkness
we are sanctioned into being.
There is a cry deeper than all sound
whose serrated edges cut the heart
as we break open to the place inside
which is unbreakable and whole,
while learning to sing.”
-Rashani Réa

May you be blessed with the community of brave hearts daring to be with each other in good, in bad, and in ugly.

With care,
Yours Madhuri Radhika Devi Dasi

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