The poet Rumi shared this wisdom: "Grief can be the garden of compassion. If you keep your heart open through everything, Your pain can become your greatest ally in your life's search for love and wisdom." The poetry of Rumi makes that process sound like a smooth and blissful journey. But, the reality is that the work of being open amidst tough stuff, seeing our suffering, accepting our pain, and moving on can be messy and difficult. AND, no matter how many times we try and fall short, it's still healing work. We'll dig into this journey throughout the episode, how we can be open to and see the truth of our pain, and how to apply compassion and practical steps to move beyond what might be holding us back.

Sources and Notes:

• Joy Lab Program: Take the next leap in your wellbeing journey with step-by-step practices to help you build and maintain the elements of joy in your life.
• Previous episodes for this series:
• Part 1: Your ordinary human compassion (and what happens when you say something you wish you hadn't said) [Joy Lab ep. 177]
• Part 2: The compassion of understanding & how to practice deep listening. [Joy Lab ep. 178]
• Part 3: We're all just like the rest of us, aren't we? (the compassion of recognition) (Joy Lab ep. 179]
• Gabor Mate's website.

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