I laughed harder, dreamed more vividly, breathed deeper…

Why get involved in opening ourselves up to feeling pain and suffering that has been more or less kept under control? Life has plenty of challenges as it is—many responsibilities, lots of work, and limited leisure time. Why would any of us want to spend some of that precious free time thinking and talking about difficult times?

A woman who attended a workshop and then became involved in one of the nine-member, community-based groups said: “When I decided to attend a Love, Loss, and Forgiveness workshop, I was ambivalent about the process that lay ahead. I was taking a week out of my busy life to attend the workshop—a week when I could have been on vacation exploring a beach somewhere, taking it easy,  not talking about unpleasant memories.

And in truth, I faced some pretty difficult things that week. But I also laughed harder, dreamed more vividly, breathed deeper, and felt more grounded than I have in years, maybe ever. And I mean literally grounded—I felt like my center of balance had shifted lower in my body. I remember looking at myself in the mirror in the middle of the week and barely recognizing the person who looked back at me. She was so much younger looking than I remembered, so much softer.”