Growing Pains

Growing Pains

“And soon the day came, when the risk it took to remain tight in a bud
became greater than the risk it took to blossom.”
Anais Nin

“I’m growing but it’s painful”, said a teacher training participant after our most recent weekend together. I empathetically agreed, knowing from experience that the process of awakening requires us to grow, and usually involves some degree of pain. Many of us grew up with the belief that once we make it into adulthood, we’ll have grown up and learned everything we need to know to live an effective life…WRONG!

Children have a very familiar relationship with growth, as their aching bones and joints expand and their ever changing systems mature. But we stubborn hedonistic adults tend to resist the idea of growth being a life long evolutionary process. Resisting growth stifles our natural curiosity for life, and I wonder when and why we became so afraid of it…

Two apposing afflictions that we struggle with along the path to waking up are that of raga, attraction and dvesha, repulsion. We are naturally drawn to pleasure (food, sex, money maybe?) and repulsed by pain (self inquiry, honest communication and disciplined action maybe?). Through spiritual practice, we observe that pursuing pleasure long enough only leads to imbalanced living and suffering, not more pleasure. Damn.

Another student finally tackled something in her life that she’d been resisting for years because she feared the unknown of doing something different. Now on the other side of it, feeling strong, confident and liberated, she is revved up and ready for the next challenge.

Are you resisting growth because of the imagined pain or discomfort that accompanies it?
I challenge you to question why you’re settling for comfortable when you could be living fully and living large.

The potential for growth is always right in front of you, so take a deep breath, step into your future and let yourself blossom.