Many people believe that suffering serves no purpose. This is especially true in America, which is a “feel good” culture that tries to avoid suffering at all costs. And yet facing my pain has played an essential role in my spiritual evolution, and the development of my ability to help others.

Whether we want to admit it or not, emotional pain is a part of the human experience. If more of us were willing to face our pain and commit to healing it, the world would be a much more compassionate place. It is fear of each other’s emotional suffering that keeps us apart – for we cannot witness in someone else what we are unable to face in our selves.

Since the earliest years of life, I was emersed in a suffering so intense that they seemed to cause a disconnect from my soul. My family was a toxic soup of drug addiction, mental illness, violence, and abuse. This awakened in me an overwhelming desire to find peace and become free. But I knew that I must first heal myself, for it was clear that my family’s madness was perpetuated by the belief that they thought themselves sane. Looking at them, I realized that I could afford no such complacency. And so, I worked ceaselessly, day and night, to understand the origins of my own anguish with the hope that someday I might heal it.

Clearly, healing this was an important part of my spiritual journey. But what I didn’t know was that it was also a preparation so that I would be able to help others. Eventually, I realized that my suffering had given me a unique ability to empathize with people who were struggling with experiences similar to my own.

Working deeply on myself caused me to be unafraid to witness the suffering of others. This created an empathetic bond that was so deep that it allowed me to share their experience and “telepathically” witness them. This might seem unusual to a Westerner, for we live in a society that inculcates in us a feeling of separateness. And yet it is a capacity that everyone has, if we but open our hearts to each other and are willing to deeply connect.

The power to grow spiritually is the greatest of gifts bestowed on us by the Divine. By allowing others into our hearts and sharing their experiences, we can help each other heal. In this way we can embody the Divinity within us.