What Do I Do With This Pain?

“... the secret to writing is to get your own pain – shout it out till it hurts your throat – weep it into your pillow – then write it down...”

― John Geddes, A Familiar Rain

When the circumstances of a day smash us against the rocks of life, how are we to successfully wrestle with such an indignity of pain? When the state of play in our heads or hearts is entangled within confusion, and chaos reigns, what is a useful next step? It is likely we will want to just do something to address the pain. Finding the answer, however, is never as simple as that, is it? But expression must certainly help.

Getting at our own pain, to somehow understand it, as a mode of dealing with it, even being healed of it, is one useful ploy for considering the way out.

Getting at our own pain is about wrangling with it; expressing it by writing. This is why the great journallers of the past have tended to become enlightened. God worked as an instrument between their mind and their hand, medicating their hearts and healing their souls, as they scrawled indecipherable letters and words on a page. The odd sentence made sense, and certainly the heavy pressed indent of pen on paper communicated the powerful grip of one’s angst.

Finding Safe Expression

Journalling isn’t the only healthy form of expression in delving into the deeper fissures of pain in order to make sense of it, but it does work for many people, and it is worth a try.

Indeed, it is worth more than one try, as we find plumbing the depths of pain is slow and arduous work, with no instant result, and little immediate reward.

But finding safe expression – whatever it is – for the soul to speak in silences and then via utterances, before a fuller expression is facilitated; this has to be our goal. Reaching a healthy position of acceptance is what we need in deriving peace beyond the pain.

As we write, and better as we speak, the pain is released. Again, this is no instant fix. It is, however, and investment in the journey toward healing, as we pray forth our truth so it may be deciphered – and so our souls can be heard at long last.

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As we express our pain, on a page via pen to paper, or via a trusted wise adviser, we gain steady yet slow access to relief for our souls. Our souls cry for the injustices that have slain our hopes. We are blessed to find safe space and courage to express the pain encamped deep within.

© 2013 S. J. Wickham.