Joy: The Surrender to the Body and to Life (Compass)

The deep feelings we have buried are those which belong to the child we were, the child who was innocent and free and who knew joy until his spirit was broken by being made to feel guilty and ashamed of his natural impulses. That child still lives in our hearts and in our guts but we have lost contact with it, which means we have lost contact with

through accident or illness, in the disappointment of our hopes. Just as day does not exist without night, nor life without death, joy cannot exist apart from sorrow. There is pain in life as well as pleasure, but we can accept the pain as long as we are not stuck in it. We can accept loss if we know we are not condemned to grieve continually. We c

Emotional pain stems from the body’s contraction in response to the loss or disruption of a loving connection.

But, one could ask, what about sorrow? We all know that there is sorrow in life. It comes to each of us in the loss of someone we love, in the loss of our power