DAILY TAROT

Growing Flowers Out of Our Wounds

with the 10 of Swords

Photo of the 10 of Swords from the Luna Sol Tarot. Image by author

First off, let me start with a disclaimer: This is not one of those “what doesn’t kill you make you stronger” motivational-type articles.

There are some things we go through that totally break us down. Pain is real, and it sucks. I’m not minimizing that in any way. But what happens when the wound is already formed? Ignoring it doesn’t help. And even with all the positive vibes, I don’t think you can just “love and light” the pain away.

Pain is real. But it’s what we do with it that decides how much it’ll hurt.

I believe we truly have choices in how we deal with pain. And I’ve tried almost all of them. Here’s a quick summary:

1. At first, I raged and blamed the world and regretted ever being born. But that didn’t work, and it actually made me more miserable.
2. Then I gave up on trying to live and began just existing. I had no purpose and no ambition. I decided that life is meaningless, and everyone else was just too deluded to see it. But this didn’t work either. And in fact, it made me pretty envious of all the people who were excited and enjoying life.
3. So I decided to try the last option — the one that made my skeptical self extremely uncomfortable. I decided to try and find meaning in my pain. And that’s how I finally started to heal.

I’ve been learning how to transform my pain into something beautiful. It started with taking a big chance on myself: going back to school to become a therapist. Then I started writing articles like these that remind people they’re not alone in what they feel. I’m an introvert, so putting myself out there on Zuckerberg’s god-awful internet feels painfully vulnerable. But I do it anyway, because you would not imagine how healing it feels to sit here and type these words.

None of these things would have been possible if I hadn’t had the mental breakdown that I went through for 3 years. It was hands down the worst time of my life. But with the gift of hindsight, I recognize that it’s been one of the most meaningful experiences in shaping who I am now. I’ve learned how to grow flowers out of my wounds.

The Takeaway

We hide our pain because it’s inextricably linked to shame. But there’s something beautiful that happens when we can gently unwrap those wounds, let the sunlight in, and give room for something new to grow.

Every day, your mind and soul fight for your attention. (Spoiler alert: the mind usually wins.) As a spiritual practitioner and psychology graduate student, I use tarot to teach myself how to quiet the mind and turn up the volume of the soul. If you’d like to learn with me, please take a look at my website.