The Poison Becomes the Medicine

One of my favorite quotes is "What doesn't kill us, makes us stronger." There are many variations to this idea: "When life hands you lemons, make lemonade," "Every cloud has a silver lining," and so on. But the one I'd like to discuss today is "The Poison Becomes the Medicine." What do I mean by that?

Many times it is the "awful" things that happen to us in our lives, the trauma suffered, the "poison" ingested, that help us discover our greatest gifts, the healing "medicine" that we can then use to help others. For when we go deeply into our pain and uncover the corresponding lesson of that pain, we can use our experience to relate to others going through similar situations. In some homeopathic remedies, in fact, the poisonous substance itself is diluted into a remedy for the condition caused by that original substance!

For myself, the "poison" I ingested early on was a message that I could not fully express myself and my creativity. My suffering around this led me to study The Artist's Way and other tools for unblocking creativity and eventually to a career helping others fully express themselves in the world. It was only because I had gone through that experience myself that I could then help others in a similar situation. In effect, my "poison" became my "medicine." My greatest trauma became a gift that I could offer others.

How many people go into a certain line of work because of a personal story or traumatic experience, because they want to help others "get to the other side" of what they or someone they knew went through?

It is said that we are never given more than we can handle. I would go one step farther and say whatever we are given in life, all of our experiences, ARE the riches we can use to help others. Every "curse" is actually a "blessing," if only we can figure out how to transform it into something useful for the world. There are numerous ways to do this and an abundance of help is available.

Play Time: I invite you to consider how YOU have transformed any "poison" in your life into a "healing medicine" for others? If you cannot think of an example, take a look at some current "poison" in your life and ask yourself if there is some healing lesson that, once you are completely through it, you could then share with others in a similar situation?

Remember, it's ALL useful--ALL of it! What riches and gifts can you find in your life experience today?