Tagged: “acknowledging the pain”
If I “bear the pain,” how will this allow me to cry?
To “bear the pain” does not mean to resist sadness. Instead, to “bear the pain” includes accepting the sadness as it comes without running away from it. To “bear the pain” is not to deny pain and sadness, but instead to courageously experience these. The wonderful paradox then is this: As you stand in the pain, allowing yourself to feel it, and deliberately not pass it to the one who hurt you or to others, it is you who begins to heal. In other words, the pain begins to lift.
What is the difference between acknowledging the pain and bearing the pain?
Acknowledgement is insight only: I realize that I am in pain. Bearing the pain, in contrast, is an active approach of not only understanding that you are in pain but also taking an active role in standing up with the pain and deliberately committing to not passing it back to the one who hurt you or to not passing it onto unsuspecting others. So, one is passive in terms of not doing something about the pain (acknowledgement) and the other is active (bearing the pain).
