Pain is not punishment. It's alchemy.

The remembrance of ecstasy and how Big Struggle signifies Big Medicine is brewing.

I was driving during sunset and passed a car with a little girl in the backseat with the window down. Her entire head was sticking out with the biggest smile painted across her tiny face.

The wind was blowing in her wild, messy, brown hair, her mouth gaping wide open as she swallowed the warm air without a care in the world.

I couldn’t help but crack up laughing, a sudden rush of connection, playfulness, and shared joy rushing through me as I witnessed her pure bliss.

I was gifted a moment of tapping into the ecstasy and relentless presence of my own inner little girl, the one who is perfectly content with nothing more than that warm summer wind kissing her face.

My eyes were still puffy from sobbing earlier that day, heart still tender and raw. I’ve been in a chapter of riding high highs and low lows, navigating a whole lot of grief, frustration, and leaning into acceptance. A chapter of dancing with The Void.

If there’s anything I’ve learned in the last few years, it’s that the depth of our pain and challenges is equivalent to our capacity to heal, grow, and expand.

Big struggle signifies that Big Medicine is brewing.

You’re not being punished, you’re being stretched into the fullness of who you’re here to become.

Beneath pain, struggle, trauma, and challenges is… life.

That’s not to bypass that it can be really fucking hard and devastating to be a human, but to recognize the interwoven pulse of aliveness, intelligence, beauty, and wonder that permeates all that we experience.

For a dense, cold barrier around the heart to soften, discomfort is required.

For a shedding of false identities to take place, fear is likely.

For one’s capacity for love, power, and wisdom to expand, a confronting detour to the other side of the spectrum is a given.

What if Big Grief didn’t have to exclude pleasure, gratitude, and a deep trust that all of this, all of this, is in your favor, molding and shaping you like a great work of art?

What if that little girl’s glimmer of ecstasy and sheer delight exists within all beings at all times, even when our exterior is too hardened, distracted, or wounded to notice?

We will all die. None of us know how or when. But we all will. That’s the only guarantee.

And my god do I hope you let yourself fill this limited time with remembering what matters and savoring every last gulp of that delicious warm summer air, tears and pain and confusion and messiness and glorious humanity and all.

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Nadine Hamilton is a certified Somatic Sexuality Coach and devoted Practitioner of somatic healing, embodied power, erotic alchemy, and earth-based spirituality, offering coaching, classes, and mentorship that guide soulful, driven humans to unleash their wildest expression, expand their capacities for pleasure and intimacy, fall in love with their true erotic nature, and remember their own divinity.

Explore Nadine’s transformative collection of heartfelt offerings, resources, and freebies here.