Healing Words

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Healing words not only assist us gain new insights into our lives, they also can be a source of comfort during rough times. Sometimes we find ourselves unable to express what we are going through and healing words lend us the voice we need to do so.

Healing words became the salve to my wounds when I was undergoing very deep depression because other people, wiser and stronger people, who also have gone through the same experiences I have, managed to put their struggles not only into words, but have produced art because of it. Some healing words are not only knowledgeable and accurate in context, they are also poetic.

In the one year I suffered severe depression and refused to speak to anyone about my condition, I read and collected all the beautiful and healing words that best described my thoughts and feelings; especially the ones I resonated with the most. I would read them religiously everyday like a prayer and reflect on them for long periods of time -- slowly chewing the words like a meal and digesting them deep inside me until I fully understood and grasped the deeper meaning underneath each and every quote.

Healing words are my lifelines -- my source of learning, courage and alliance. I wish I could write them all down in this blog and thank all the artistic, intuitive and clever people whose words helped me through my darkest nights and were my only source of joy and solace. But since that is not possible, I would like to share some of them in here:

“Oh soul,
you worry too much.
You have seen your own strength.
You have seen your own beauty.
You have seen your golden wings.
Of anything less,
why do you worry?
You are in truth
the soul, of the soul, of the soul.”
~ Jalal al-Din Rumi ~

“Many of us spend our whole lives running from feeling

with the mistaken belief that you cannot bear the pain.

But you have already borne the pain.

What you have not done is feel all you are beyond the pain.”

~ Saint Batholomew ~

“Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.”
~ George Bernard Shaw ~

“When one door of happiness closes, another opens;
but often we look so long at the closed door
that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.”
~ Helen Keller ~

“You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.”
~ Buddha ~
“To laugh often and much;
to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children;
to leave the world a better place;
to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived;
This is to have succeeded.”
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson ~

"The most important things in life aren't things."
~ Anthony J. D'Angelo ~

“Wisdom ceases to be wisdom when it becomes too proud to weep,

too grave to laugh,

and too selfish to seek other than itself.”

~ Kahlil Gibran ~

“When you have come to the edge of all light that you know

and are about to drop off into the darkness of the unknown,

faith is knowing one of two things will happen:

there will be something solid to stand on

or you will be taught to fly”

~ Patrick Overton ~

“The risk of love is loss, and the price of loss is grief -
but the pain of grief is only a shadow
when compared with the pain
of never risking love.”

~ Hilary Stanton Zunin ~

After Pain

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After pain comes healing and after healing comes personal growth. From personal growth we gain a deeper insight into our true selves, or simply put, our souls; and from becoming more aware of our souls' purpose, we attain higher consciousness -- the union between our spirit and God or as others may refer to as the Universe -- and from this union comes Enlightenment. Many ask why we are only able to achieve higher awareness after pain?

I would like to share a beautiful excerpt from The Prophet, one of most the famous works of Lebanese American poet, writer and artist Kahlil Gibran, who elegantly speaks of why we experience pain in our lives and the rewards we reap after pain.

"And a woman spoke, saying, Tell us about Pain.

And he said:

Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding.

Even as the stone of the fruit must break, that its heart may stand in the sun,

so must you know pain.

And could you keep your heart in wonder at the daily miracles of your life,

your pain would not seem less wondrous than your joy;

And you would accept the seasons of your heart,

even as you have always accepted the seasons that pass over your fields.

And you would watch with serenity through the winters of your grief.

Much of your pain is self-chosen.

It is the bitter potion by which the physician within you heals your sick self.

Therefore trust the physician and drink his remedy in silence and tranquility:

For his hand, though heavy and hard, is guided by the tender hand of the Unseen,

And the cup he brings, though it burns your lips,

has been fashioned of the clay which the Potter has moistened with His own sacred tears."

In this wondrous passage of The Prophet, Kahlil Gibran exquisitely describes how pain is part of a spiritual process we all must undergo as human beings. The process teaches us to appreciate our lives more and value the bountiful blessings around us by helping us gain a deeper understanding of ourselves and find our true purpose in life -- not the purpose society has pressured us to achieve materially.

After pain comes a cleansing of the soul that clears up our hearts and minds of the rubbish we ourselves pollute it with every single day. This rubbish of course pertains to all our fears, anger, hatred, disappointments, resentments, insecurities, prejudices, doubts, greed, selfishness and indifference towards the world and the people around us. We need to wrench these feelings out from within ourselves to purify our souls. We have to undergo the painful and unpleasant rites of passage that come naturally with life. True happiness, contentment, a purposeful and meaningful existence will all come to fruition and can be an attainable goal after a lot of personal work and after pain.