Value of Misery

Most people are brought to this work by some amount of what they consider to be misery in their lives. Their lives are just not going the way they think they should be going and they are unhappy, angry, frustrated or disappointed about that. Nothing they do changes the situation and outcome. The value of misery is that, without that misery, most of us would never do the very challenging work of going inside, looking at and changing our own programming. Yet without some form of going inside work, personal growth is limited, our fullest potentials never reached. While pain and misery are not the only forces that can motivate us to go inside and heal our issues, they are certainly among the most prevalent. Pain (emotional or physical) has the additional value of urgently demanding our attention to a situation -- right here, right now. The recollection of pain can also be a tremendous motivator.
Misery and pain serve by bringing us to the question, Why? How many of us, in truth, would ask why -- much less go exploring our internal world -- without the motivating factor of misery or pain? Since issues and protection mechanisms and beliefs always cause us some pain at some point in our lives, they can be considered to contribute to the cycle of personal growth. Issues and protection mechanisms call our attention to internal programming that needs to be corrected (healed). While there are other motivating forces (such as a quest for God/Spirituality) which may also lead to internal exploration, the search for relief from misery is usually the reason most people pursue an internal healing path in the first place.

By Lawrence I. Miller
Hypnosis Center
www.hypnosiscentersoca.net