A Stillness Experience for Carrying Quiet Pain

On Depression, Numbness & Emptiness

Some pain is loud — it cries out, it demands attention, it is visible to everyone. But some pain is quiet. You carry it without showing it. You move through your days with hurt that no one sees, functioning on the outside while aching on the inside. This stillness experience is for that quiet pain — the kind you carry alone.

Quiet pain is not less real than loud pain. It may even be heavier, because you carry it without support. There is no one to witness it, no one to offer comfort, because no one knows it's there. You have become skilled at hiding it.

This experience offers a place where your quiet pain can be acknowledged, where what you hide can be seen without judgment.

What Quiet Pain Feels Like

Quiet pain has a particular quality of hiddenness. You carry it while appearing fine to others.

• Smiling on the outside while hurting on the inside
• No one asks if you're okay because you seem fine
• Keeping pain private to avoid burdening others
• Feeling alone in crowded rooms
• A gap between how you appear and how you feel
• Exhaustion from the performance of normalcy

If you carry quiet pain, you have likely become expert at hiding. But the hiding itself takes energy and adds to the burden.

Why We Hide Pain

There are many reasons to carry pain quietly. You may not want to burden others. You may fear being seen as weak. You may have learned that your pain is unwelcome. You may not trust others to respond well. You may not even have words for what hurts.

These reasons make sense. But carrying alone has costs — isolation, exhaustion, the loneliness of unseen suffering.

A Stillness for Hidden Hurt

In this stillness, you can let your quiet pain be seen — even if only by God.

Lord, I carry pain that no one sees. I have become skilled at hiding it, functioning despite it, appearing fine while hurting. But You see what others cannot see. You know the pain I carry quietly. I bring it to You now — not to fix, but to witness. See what I have been hiding. Acknowledge what I carry alone. You do not require my performance. You receive me as I am — hurting, hiding, tired of carrying this by myself. Let me feel, even for a moment, that someone knows. Let me not be so alone in what I hide. Hold my quiet pain with me.

After the stillness, consider whether there is one safe person you could share some of what you carry. You do not have to share everything. But sharing something can lighten the load.

Carrying Pain Less Alone

While you may not be ready to share everything, these steps may help lighten the isolation.

• Acknowledge your pain to yourself — naming it matters
• Consider one trusted person who might understand
• Write about your pain even if no one reads it
• Allow yourself moments of not performing
• Seek professional support — therapists are trained to witness
• Remember that sharing does not make you a burden

Pain carried alone is heavier than pain carried together. You do not have to share everything, but you do not have to carry everything alone either.