We are integrators of experience. Here in the physical we have experience (receive sense data), interpret the experience (attach thoughts and judgments to the data received), and then react to our own interpretation (even if we’ve forgotten it’s our own interpretation). Through that process we grow as “successful experiencers of experience.”
Some experiences are more challenging than others. In general, this physical reality offers to us uniquely challenging constraints: the fact that this reality around us “stays firm” and appears to not yield when it pushes on us makes the “force” of the circumstances very strong. As the consciousness seeks to integrate such a challenging circumstance-set, the stress of the experience can potentially enable profound spiritual growth.
Alternatively, it can also potentially stress a consciousness to a “breaking point.” Psychological trauma cases are examples of where a personality has been “forced” to experience a constraint-set and resulting interpretations that are too severe for what it can handle in its current form. Often the consciousness “buries” the experience somewhere so that it does not have to fully confront what it felt as a result of the experience.
Yet in the long run the consciousness always seeks to integrate- always seeks to “assimilate” the experience and its interpretations- into its own “big picture” of experience. For trauma sufferers, the old fears, “unanswered whys,” negative self-perceptions, and pains may continue to come up time and time again- often very disruptively- in an effort to be “processed.” I myself have experienced this, and it can be unspeakably painful and challenging.
But ultimately, eventually, any experience can be fully processed and healed. In order to do so, though, we must be humble enough to admit our many weaknesses and negative self-perceptions, and we also must be brave enough to be willing to fully feel what we feel in the now. We must actually feel our feelings in the present moment, as they come up, no matter what they are, without judgment! Healing always takes place in the now; our power is always in the present moment.
You can always “now” decide to face and feel your old wounds- especially during the precious opportunities when those negative feelings have risen to the surface for you to process. It can take years, decades, even lifetimes to heal certain old wounds- but when you truly commit to undertaking such a process, the powers of the higher realms themselves come to your aid!
A Walk in the Physical 