Pain as a Gateway to the Universe

We have been hearing about climate change and land decline for several years now. But humans have a feature: it is difficult for us to size something that we do not see or experience, unless we develop our deep connection capacity and in this case; our compassion.

The definition of compassion in the dictionary appears as follows: “Feeling of sadness that comes with seeing someone suffer and impelled them to alleviate their pain or suffering, to remedy or to avoid it.”

How we can read, compassion is not just “feeling ugly” and forgetting it. It is a feeling that causes us pain and that moves us to act to slow it down or eliminate it, not only ours, but that of others; classification in which we can encompass people, animals, plants and trees, the land itself.

So what has happened that we are not able to feel pain and less of taking actions to stop the collective suffering that we live in the globe?; What’s causing us to just “turn our face” and pretend that what IF is happening is not happening? I will give my opinion; which of course can be different from the rest: we live in a society that has oriented itself to pleasure, to seek to satisfy our tastes at all costs, to avoid pain and to feel the “center of creation”.

This way of life, has produced “disconnected” generations who at all times seek external stimuli that will take away their boredom, avoid effort and provide them with instant rewards. So the pain, the need, the hunger, the demand and the effort never come. They don’t know each other!!!

What a problem!: how am I going to contact the pain of others and want to stop it, if I don’t even know my own ability to feel pain or at least discomfort? It’s impossible to want to change something That I don’t identify, that I don’t know, and that I’m even programmed to “not feel.”

It will be indispensable then to begin to feel. To feel the pain of my own life, to feel the pain of others, close and far, to feel the collective pain that I read and see in the news, to feel the pain of mother earth that cries through fires , tremors, high temperatures and cyclones…. to feel!

What keys can I follow to undertake this new way of perceiving myself and perceiving the environment?

1.- Set aside your distractors (phones, tablets, TV…) and pay attention! dedicate yourself to paying attention to your nearest and most everyday environment, where are there signs of pain?, which people present to me along the way as vulnerable beings who ask for my help?, What events happen in front of me and I am used to avoid?

2.- Review your personal and family history. What situations cause you fear or anxiety?, what facts cause you anger and/or rejection?, how can you express your anger and/or pain in your family and with your loved ones?

3.- Now turn outward: What facts especially attract your attention in your society?, In the news?, In the world?, What events cause you fear?, What can you do to change them?.

Maybe not much, but you can perceive them “closely” and make them more yours, rather than just ignoring them or pretending they’re not happening. When we “make our own” the pain of other beings (of any kind), we can feel, accompany, pray, meditate, cry, and transform.

No, it is not a question of “decreeing” well-being and believing that magic acts through us, but of “sending a message” to our compassionate capacity, to our “extended self”, to our sublime and spiritual Being who cares for all and for everything; especially for those who suffer and feel pain.

This is not useless massasochism; it is about rescuing our humanity, our union with the “everything”, our spirituality, our Divine essence; the spark of God that all of us (without exception) we possess, even if you call it another way; but that many of us have suppressed, because of our hedonistic and superficial lifestyle.

If necessary, ask for help, be accompanied by a therapist and/or spiritual guide who lives with you this process. You don’t have to walk alone! Spirituality is lived from within, outwardly, but in community; it necessarily involves union.

Living this “reconnection” is not easy. We have a lifetime of conditionings that “apart” us, which tells us to “not suffer”, so Ecopsychology will be of great utility and a beautiful path that will help you activate your connection with Mother Earth and with the whole around us.

Contrary to what our Western society indicates, living together is a sign of mental health. Living Split of, avoiding feeling and isolating ourselves from others, causes a state of loneliness and sickness that sooner or later will manifest itself in destructive forms; for ourselves, and for the other beings around us.

So we invite you to take the risk of “feeling”; whatever comes in you.