The cure for the pain is in the pain.
Rumi - 1207- 1273
Rumi, full name Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi, was a 13th-century Persian poet, Islamic scholar, theologian, and Sufi mystic.
Rumi's writings focus heavily on themes of love, divine union, the soul's longing for the Source, and the idea that hardship and loss are pathways to spiritual growth. His work was deeply influenced by Sufism, a mystical branch of Islam that emphasises personal experience of God.
Much of his poetry is metaphorical, using physical love as a symbol for divine love.
A significant turning point in his life was his profound friendship with a wandering dervish named Shams of Tabriz, who became his spiritual companion and inspiration. After Shams mysteriously disappeared, Rumi's grief and longing fueled much of his most powerful poetry.
Where across the course of your day today, could you consider where it might be that you turn your losses into your most powerful poetry?
I love the phrase Poetry in motion. It describes a moment when action becomes art.
When movement, whether physical, emotional, intellectual, or spiritual, happens with grace, harmony, and natural rhythm, it evokes the same kind of beauty we feel when reading a great poem. Everything is flowing. Nothing feels forced.
Journaling for 10 minutes about one recent loss and extracting three lessons it taught you is an empowering way to alchemise it, to turn sorrow into wisdom, and grief into poetry.
Write a gratitude list specifically focused on something you once lost.
Identify how this painful experience forced you to develop something you now value.
Write a letter (not sent) to the version of yourself who went through that loss, expressing what you’ve learned.
Where across the course of your day today, could you consider where it might be that you practice some emotional processing actions?
Take a 10-minute silent walk, simply allowing yourself to feel whatever surfaces.
To soften the loss's emotional charge, practice a short breathwork session while recalling it.
4-7-8 breathing: Inhale through the nose for 4 seconds, hold the breath for 7 seconds, and exhale slowly through the mouth for 8 seconds. Repeat: This is usually done in four cycles for about 1-2 minutes total.
Share the story with a trusted friend, but reframe it through the lens of what you’ve gained.
Turn part of your story into a blog post, poem, song lyric, or short video. As much as I think of you, my dear reader, for inspiration for The Daily Dose, many of my musings are cathartic outpourings of my monkey mind, which is silenced with each tap of my keyboard.
Take a photo that symbolises your transformation, such as the ocean after a storm or a tree regrowing after being cut.
Reach out to someone currently facing a similar loss and offer them encouragement or perspective.
Volunteer your time or energy to an organisation that supports people who’ve experienced what you once did.
Do an intense full-body workout with very short rest breaks or a physical practice that symbolises strength rising from struggle.
My favourite thing to do when feeling that the weight of the world is on my shoulders is to go for a long walk with around 1/4 of my body weight in a backpack. Once I’m back from my walk, it feels like the world's weight is off my shoulders, and I walk on air for the rest of the day. Physiology is psychology.
At face value, Rumi is saying: Do not run from your pain.
Do not avoid it, suppress it, or distract yourself from it.
Because within the pain itself lies the very key to healing.
Where across the course of your day today, could you consider where it might be that you are consciously avoiding your pain?
Avoidance delays healing. Avoidance allows wounds to fester.
Drinking, overworking, endless scrolling, or starting a rebound relationship are avoidance behaviours.
But when you face the pain directly, when you enter into it, sit with it, and feel it fully, you allow its energy to move through you, transform you, and eventually release you.
Emotions that are not processed become stored trauma. When we allow ourselves to fully feel grief, anger, heartbreak, or fear, without self-judgment, the nervous system discharges that trapped energy.
Every time you avoid discomfort, you delay the lesson. But when you face it, sit inside it, and examine its message, you grow in self-awareness, resilience, and mastery.
The pain itself often contains wisdom, perspective, empathy, and even new identity structures. Many people only discover their purpose because of their pain.
We know now that avoidance patterns keep the amygdala hyperactive. Exposure therapy (leaning into the fear or pain) allows the prefrontal cortex to regain regulation. In essence:
The nervous system learns safety through the experience of discomfort, not in avoidance of it.
The only way out is through.
Healing doesn't mean the damage never existed. It means the damage no longer controls our lives.
The ego resists pain because it threatens our illusion of control and comfort. But the soul knows that pain strips away what is false, breaks our attachments, and softens us toward the Divine.
Rebirth is not about becoming someone else. It’s about becoming fully yourself, the version life has been preparing you for.
While you’re thinking about that, think about this and have a Gr8 day!
Be well.
DL
“Every now and then go away, have a little relaxation, for when you come back to your work your judgment will be surer. Going away sometimes means a kind of rebirth."
Leonardo da Vinci - 1452 - 1519.