Pain can be our greatest friend and even greater teacher. If we have the courage and clarity of
peace to look at it, we can see its lessons and even its beauty.

Oftentimes (all the time?), in regards to emotional and mental pain, we are our own worst critic. We talk to ourselves in ways we would never tolerate anyone else speaking to us. We believe our own criticism and we have a hard time believing our own — or other people’s — praise.

The past can never be negative. It was what it was. It happened in the past and it no longer even exists but in our memory. If we learn from the past, if we use what we’ve learned, and if we can move forward with greater wisdom and experience, then we can even turn it into a positive.