About this quote

Healing requires us to look directly at what hurts rather than running away from it. Distractions delay the sting, but they also prolong the ache. What if the discomfort you are avoiding is actually the map to your recovery? You have to feel the full weight of the grief or failure to finally let it go. Sitting quietly with your distress is the only way to dissolve it.

When to use it

• After losing his joint mobility, a runner realizes he has to face the physical therapy exercises that hurt the most. He tells his partner, 'I need to stop skipping the painful stretches, because that is where the healing actually happens.'
• A small business owner sits down to look at her mounting debt spreadsheets instead of ignoring them. She thinks to herself, 'Staring at these red numbers is terrifying, but it is the only way to build a real budget.'
• During a tense family dinner, a son finally decides to address a long-standing misunderstanding with his father. He tells himself, 'We have to have this uncomfortable conversation tonight if we ever want to get past the silence.'