Soon you will rise like a phoenix
One of the most dangerous myths we have inherited from our superficial culture is that
healing is always supposed to ‘feel good’.
No. Sometimes our discomfort actually intensifies as darkness emerges into light, as
unconscious material makes its way into present awareness, as our old illusions burn up
into a fever of healing.
Perhaps our discomfort is not wrong, a mistake or a sign that we have lost our healing
path. Remember, the presence of pain today may actually indicate that our healing
process is intensifying, not stalling; that we are actually more awake and sensitive than
ever now, less numb, less willing to turn away, more in touch with our sacred
vulnerability.
There is such a tendency in our culture to avoid discomfort of any kind, distract ourselves
from it, label it as ‘wrong’ or ‘negative’ or even unspiritual; meditate or medicate it
away. Much of our Western medicine is geared towards the removal of symptoms, the
silencing of disruption, the numbing of chaos and the journey towards some socially
acceptable ‘normality’.
But sometimes, friends, we no longer have any interest in ‘returning to normal’! The
‘normal’ was the problem, not the solution. The status quo needed to shift. It was
unstable and false. Our old conception of reality was keeping us trapped and we needed
to break free! Sometimes a deadening and soul-destroying ‘normality’ needs to shatter
into chaos and crisis; our pain and sorrow, frustration, exhaustion, fear and doubts need
to be felt more fully than ever before, and the heart needs to break open more completely.
So let the winds blow, let the tempests rage, let all that is false be purified, let all that is
dead remain dead, let life explode where you are! You are only being invited now to a
deeper healing, friend, even though it feels like you’re getting ‘worse’, even though the
heart is tender and raw, even though you cannot yet feel your tomorrows!
Soon you will rise like a phoenix
Jeff Foster
