When you want something badly enough, you are willing to put up with some pain. Is this not true? “I want that new car. I will sacrifice this or that to afford it. I want a healthy body. I am willing to exercise it a bit harder to keep it so.” And now you say, “I wish to find peace and happiness.” Then, when your painful emotions come to the surface, you protest. “I do not want to feel this pain!”
These are the lessons you must experience to know peace. By pushing down the unpleasant emotions and not allowing them to be felt, you deny yourself the ultimate peace. Feel them. Acknowledge them. Cry. In this way, you bring them fully to the surface, where you can then release them. Will other lessons come? Of course. Pleasure and pain are part of this life you have taken on, but you need not remain with the pain. Acknowledge it and release it. Like an exercise for the body, this exercise reveals and sharpens the spirit so that it may sparkle more brightly and you may be aware of your true self more of the time.