When a Loved One Suffers

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This is the sixth post in the series of Processing Emotional Pain. This is for those who walk beside one who suffers. Perhaps we suffer too.  We certainly suffer as we watch our loved one experience and process their emotional pain.

We long to fix it, to hide it, to run away from it. We long to heal the pain so we don't have to witness it any more or so that we can feel good that we helped someone. Walking beside someone who is suffering takes courage.

Processing Emotional Pain through Viewing Art

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This is the fifth post in the series of Processing Emotional Pain. “We often come away from someone else’s creation with a deeper understanding of our own story.” -Jan Phillips in God Is at Eye Level: Photography as a Healing Art

When we spend time with a piece of art in contemplation and prayer, it can access parts of us that perhaps we couldn't access on our own.

Processing Emotional Pain through Creating Art

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This is the fourth post in the series of Processing Emotional Pain. Many people find comfort in processing their pain through art - dance, paint, pen, words, film. Each medium can provide a cathartic release and expression of pain.

Photography is the medium I myself choose to use most often, followed by words, and then by doodles.

Here is a doodle from a prayer journal a couple years back:

Processing Emotional Pain with Jesus

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This is the second post in the series of Processing Emotional Pain. In total conjunction with treatment to processing emotional pain is, for me, my faith in Jesus.

Knowing that Jesus was fully human and suffered like we do - out of pure love is so amazing to me. Jesus wept. Jesus felt lonely and abandoned. Jesus felt tired. Jesus felt physical torture and execution at the hands of those who He was trying to serve.

Processing Pain through Companionship

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This is the third post in the series of Processing Emotional Pain. The posts to the other parts of the series can be found here.

Pain can feel lonely and isolating but we often have "companions in misfortune. In sorrow."

This idea of having a "companion in sorrow" is a theme that is woven throughout Sharon Garlough Brown's book, Shades of Light.

Processing Emotional Pain through Treatment

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This is the first post in the series of Processing Emotional Pain. I originally had this post at the end of the series and purposely moved it to the beginning. Treatment for emotional pain or mental illness is not an after-thought nor a last resort. And, so, here it is, at the beginning.

The enduring stigma around mental suffering and our tendency to oversimplify and over-spiritualize complex emotional needs can unnecessarily magnify the distress of those who are struggling emotionally.

Processing Emotional Pain: Series Intro

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It is likely that if you don’t suffer from emotional pain through trauma, grief, or mental illness, that you have a friend or family member who struggles.

People have pre-conceived notions on how pain should be processed, how long it should take, and what it should look like. But no two person’s experience is the same and should not be treated as such.