Bread is a healthy warning sign that helps us address problems. You can’t escape the pain. No matter how lonely or prickly you act, pain will find you and you will inflict it. Pain exists to teach us instincts for caution and survival. The bread is good and normal.

I have a foam heart. However, I have acted in the past as if my heart were made of glass and every pain shattered my confidence. Even when mended, the cracks and cracks are clear in a heart of glass. Rather than fear the inevitable, I accept that pain is a normal part of life. Most people hurt us because of their thorny defense mechanisms to protect their own crystal hearts. If everyone stands for a perceived glass heart, what can we do to cut through the conflict and pain?

Now my foam heart bounces back, retains color, and fills up again after each wound. It’s resilient and part of the cure. Seeing those who hurt us as hurt makes it easier to reach out with kindness. Magically, it also dissolves perceived evil! Even better, things don’t hurt as much. The defensiveness is gone. If the heart recovers, then there is no fear of being overwhelmed with grief.

We cannot predict where and when the pain will occur. Try to be resilient without harshness or evasion in the face of challenges. Being prickly does not protect you from pain and anything negative will cause someone else pain. We can stop the cycle of reacting to pain with defensiveness, anger, and avoidance. This viscous cycle keeps us all hurting each other.

Close your eyes and imagine your heart as something soft like flubber or foam versus glass or stone. What happens to stone under too much pressure? Stone cracks. The glass breaks. My red foam heart can bounce. To be free from fear is to accept the fact that pain is inevitable. Set your standards, be kind, and protect your friends and family to the best of your ability by having clear boundaries. Accepting that all pain is inevitable does not mean that we are powerless to stop abusers.

You can avoid unnecessary conflict by acknowledging the reason behind the pain. Is the person acting out of her own pain? This will guide you on how to reach or cut off the source of the pain. That’s what pain is for! It is a warning so that we can live better, help others and stop the cycle of fear of the unknown. What kind of sturdy material is your heart made of?

Give it a try for a week and see if your world is ‘less thorny’.