When did you stop hiding your pain and start using it as power?

Almost everything is multisided – including the occurrences that give us pain. So, we asked some of the most enlightened folks in the community to share how they have harnessed their pain to help rather than hurt them.

Kyna Lee

For so long, I tried to compartmentalize or minimize the things that felt too heavy — because in this industry, you’re encouraged to be polished, positive, and resilient at all times. This industry is full of rejection. But pain is part of being human, and it’s part of being an artist. Read more>>

Sylvia & Santiago Garza

We reached that turning point when we realized that this journey is so much bigger than our physical selves. Once we understood that our experiences, both the light and the painful parts, were part of a greater purpose, everything shifted. Read more>>

Nikki Dunlap

Honestly, this shift has happened more than once in my life, but the most defining moment was recent. I went through a loss that did not involve death, but it felt just as final. Someone who lived in the center of my heart was suddenly no longer in my world. It was the kind of loss that rearranges the inside of you. Read more>>

COEN

I stopped hiding my pain from myself by turning it into lyrical power. I started writing lyrics and songs in my later years of high school, shortly after experiencing so much heaviness than ever before: being in love, preparing to graduate and go to college, leaving my family and friends for the first time to strike out on my own. Read more>>