Healing often doesn't feel good.

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For we have to come face to face with our own shadow.

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To hold it tenderly even when it hurts.

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And be true to ourselves as we see our own reflection.

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That reflection might not look as nice as we thought.

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When someone catches us in a behavior that is not kind.

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Or we have to deal with the fallout of a certain action.

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It can be easy to go into blame and shame.

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Which only leads us to feel worse about ourselves.

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As if the pain we are already carrying is not bad enough, now we have the concrete evidence that we're not so bright and shiny as we thought we were.

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So the downward spiral goes.

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No matter how hard we try to feel our own heart and have some self-compassion, it just feels too far away.

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We can be closed off to feeling good about ourselves, even though that is what we think we need most.

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Stuck in our own morass, we can spiral for a while.

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There is not escaping the feelings that are present in our body.

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And we have to find our way through those feelings, metabolizing them as we go.

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For we never really release them.

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That feeling of inadequacy will always live inside of us.

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Yet we can come to the place of acceptance, where that feeling does not have to be in charge.

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Long before we can come back to that good feeling place, we can at least find some peace.

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Not the peace of deep connection.

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Just the peace of personal acceptance.

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Acceptance of who we are.

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Of where we have come from.

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And where we are going.

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Healing is not an easy practice.

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Though it is the most fulfilling one we can commit to.

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With time, we will come to a better feeling place inside.

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Just not as quickly as we would like.

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Is the trip not worth it?

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~ Sam Liebowitz, The Conscious Consultant

Host of The Conscious Consultant Hour