Pain

it can wake us up
it can put us to sleep
it can make us more compassionate and wise
it can make us more selfish and afraid

Opening our minds and hearts. Letting the pain in and letting it change things. Doing the same, old habitual thing will only get the same old habitual results. 

Things won't change without shaking them up. You want something to change and be different, do something different. Shake up the way you look at, interact, and view the world. This won't be comfortable and it won't be easy, but the courage to shake things up is the only way to truly make a change.

We are habitual creatures who ingrain our habits deeper and deeper as time goes on. We seek pleasure and escape in the same old ways and run from the same old fears. Unless we slow down and take the time to look what we're seeking and running from.

It's so easy to see where another person is stuck. To see where they seek pleasure and escape to, yet seeing our own escapism is much more difficult. And yet, we are the only ones who have the power to change these habitual actions. We must seek out our ways of grasping, seeking, and escaping and take the action to break the habits.