Unfortunately, one of the realities of life is that we will inevitably experience some form of suffering.

Feeling hurt and pain, or grief due to loss, disappointment, struggle, or rejection is simply a part of life.

Now, it is also true that many of us do anything we can to avoid having to feel the pain around our suffering by either pushing it away or stuffing the emotions down so that we don’t have to feel them so intensely.

Some of us numb the pain with drugs, alcohol, shopping, food, sex, people pleasing, or delve deep into anything we can find that will give us pleasure so we can further bury our emotions, and therefore avoid the pain we feel.

And this time of year, especially can bring up feelings of sadness, grief, loss, overwhelm, as many feel more isolated around the holidays and are confronted with images of “perfect” families, togetherness, love and connection that can magnify any feelings of lack that already exist within us.

But even though it is incredibly difficult, it is important to remember that in order to heal from something emotionally, you first have to feel the pain, the sadness, grief, and hurt, and acknowledge it.

And this is also true for things that we have suffered in our past lives as well, as it is not necessarily the past life itself that is impacting you in your life today – but rather the way that past life made you feel, or the emotions that resulted from what happened to you before, in a past life.

In fact, it is our emotions that make us human.

The key to healing our wounds in both this life, as well as our past lives, is to face these feelings head on, with courage.

It is also incredibly important to acknowledge that we are all suffering in some way, some in more obvious or public ways than others, but we must always remember to show love and kindness to each other and give support when it is needed.

You are never alone on your journey, but the only true path to healing goes straight through the dark woods.

You’ve got to feel it before you can heal it – but on the other side of that healing is not only joy but earned wisdom as well.

Sending all of you love on your continual path of healing.