"New beginnings are often disguised as painful endings." — Lao Tzu

We vomit to rid ourselves of a toxin. It is a sudden, violent, and unpleasant response that, in the end, soothes.

Purging of the sort on the spiritual path, happens on a variety of levels.

Psychologically, we watch our understanding of reality transform with, at first, highly unnerving consequences.

Emotionally, we watch layers and layers of grief and fear get expunged through chaotic, disorienting episodes.

And physically even, we watch illness, bizarre symptoms of no known origin, and various aches and pains move through us intermittently.

Signing up for freedom is not for the faint of heart.

We have to develop the capacity to bear inordinate amounts of pain and, importantly, recognise when a crisis of healing is occurring.

If we do not recognise the healing crisis, we then feel something is wrong and in need of "fixing." We separate from our malady and become unable to receive the gift it is trying to give, setting us up for a larger issue down the road.

But if we can understand something in us is getting purged to clean up an untidy area that will end up benefitting us, how much wiser we become.

How can you say something is wrong ever again?