Is spiritual transformation painful or joyful for you

[John Elessar]

[Durn it no polls on this board oh well]

When doing some reading and lurking I came across some posts which seemed to indicate that the posters in question considered growth and transformation to be a painful process.

Which is odd, because for me it is definitely a joyful one. I guess it can be painful when you are still attached to old habits and find it hard to relinquish them precisely because they are comfortable and thus seem like old friends. You'd rather stay with the old and familiar vs. progressing on to the new and fresh and challenging. The tension arises I think when you start to subconsciously realize that these old habits aren't working any more, but you still stubbornly cling to them.

For me I guess I find it easier to let them go once they have outlived their purpose; the subsequent sense of freedom can be exhilarating. Not to say that I don't have things I still cling to-I mentioned in another post how it took a long time to relinquish my bitterness towards women and relationships. In other cases tho it can be almost ridiculously easy.

So where do you tend to fall on this spectrum?

Originally Posted by John DiFool

[Durn it no polls on this board oh well]

When doing some reading and lurking I came across some posts which seemed to indicate that the posters in question considered growth and transformation to be a painful process.

Which is odd, because for me it is definitely a joyful one. I guess it can be painful when you are still attached to old habits and find it hard to relinquish them precisely because they are comfortable and thus seem like old friends. You'd rather stay with the old and familiar vs. progressing on to the new and fresh and challenging. The tension arises I think when you start to subconsciously realize that these old habits aren't working any more, but you still stubbornly cling to them.

For me I guess I find it easier to let them go once they have outlived their purpose; the subsequent sense of freedom can be exhilarating. Not to say that I don't have things I still cling to-I mentioned in another post how it took a long time to relinquish my bitterness towards women and relationships. In other cases tho it can be almost ridiculously easy.

So where do you tend to fall on this spectrum?

I can't say that my spiritual transformation was without a lot of pain. Yes it was ego that needed to die...but that ego was at one point me.

[Swami Chihuahuananda]

It's full of both and neither matters. (but after a while "it's all good" )
((point being that I do whatever it takes, whether it brings pain or joy ,
and after a certain point the pain doesn't even matter, and neither does the
desire to have joy . Being in the transformative state, a state of grace ,
a graceful state of being , that's what matters. That is not about the duality
of joy or pain ))

[Orbie]

Both....

[onetruebeliever]

I am in awe of the whole process. I struggle with the "whys" of what I have opened up or reopened. But reading and researching, as well as talking to others, has helped me to begin to understand. I have no particular religious beliefs, so it has been difficult to understand angels, etc. I have reawakened my buried psychic abilities with in the last year, and my mediumistic abilities have opened up. I look at it as new phase in my life and it is truly wondrous.

Originally Posted by John DiFool

[Durn it no polls on this board oh well]

You must be doin' it wrong.

When doing some reading and lurking I came across some posts which seemed to indicate that the posters in question considered growth and transformation to be a painful process.
Which is odd, because for me it is definitely a joyful one.

You find it odd that another has a different perspective to yours?

I guess it can be painful when you are still attached to old habits and find it hard to relinquish them precisely because they are comfortable and thus seem like old friends. You'd rather stay with the old and familiar vs. progressing on to the new and fresh and challenging. The tension arises I think when you start to subconsciously realize that these old habits aren't working any more, but you still stubbornly cling to them.

Freedom can be painful to accustomize to for people who have been accustomed to prison for a long time.

So where do you tend to fall on this spectrum?

I don't know until i have the experience, then i can evaluate and judge how painful or pleasurable each transformation experience is.
Depression took 7 painful years to heal.
Fear of rejection took a calm few hours of examination of an incident to heal.

[Xan]

There is often pain in our subconscious minds from the past that has to come to the surface in order to be healed and released.

Some people don't carry much anger, hurt, shame and fear; and some a great deal.

As we become clear there is room to experience happiness for no reason, pure joy... love itself.


Xan

Originally Posted by Xan

There is often pain in our subconscious minds from the past that has to come to the surface in order to be healed and released.

Some people don't carry much anger, hurt, shame and fear; and some a great deal.

As we become clear there is room to experience happiness for no reason, pure joy... love itself.


Xan

Yes, being sexually abused as a child was a big one for me to overcome, but I also had built a foundation about who I thought I was, what I thought I knew and that I was "needed" in this world. When I realized no one needed me and that there was no purpose to life other than the one I gave myself....yeah that hurt LOL

[John Elessar]

Originally Posted by Alternate Carpark

You must be doin' it wrong.

It's probably because I'm a newbie (I use this board software on other fora and it should be at the bottom of the posting window, but isn't). <shrug>

You find it odd that another has a different perspective to yours?

Not really-I wished to gain other perspectives, and that I have indeed gotten.

Freedom can be painful to accustomize to for people who have been accustomed to prison for a long time.

I don't know until i have the experience, then i can evaluate and judge how painful or pleasurable each transformation experience is.
Depression took 7 painful years to heal.
Fear of rejection took a calm few hours of examination of an incident to heal.

Then it's the other way around for me-my depression was annihilated in a single instant one afternoon after an uncanny encounter with wildlife (tho that moment was somewhat long in the gestating), but fear of rejection remains omnipresent for me to this day (tho lessened quite a bit-my travails as outlined in this thread would have driven me over the bend even one year ago, and I'm doing pretty okay all things considered).

[Xan]

Freedom can be painful to accustomize to for people who have been accustomed to prison for a long time.


Yes, for sure. Pain can become so familiar we may fear the change when it starts to go. I remember feeling "Who will I be without this?" I found out.


Xan