From 'Ritual: Power, Healing & Community' by Malidoma Patrice Some'

...when an initiated member of the community registers communication thru pain, it is a signal that the soul is in need of some communion with its spiritual counterpart.  In other words,  the soul is moving old furniture out and bringing in new furniture.  Whether that eventually works out well is another question.  We do not always allow ourselves to work through pain.  More often than not, we think pain is a signal that we must stop, rather than find its source.  Our souls do not like stagnation.  Our souls aspire towards growth, that is, toward remembering all that we have forgotten due to our trip to this place, the earth.  In this context, a body in pain is a soul in longing.  To shut down the pain is to override the call of the soul.  When this happens it is a repressive measure taken against oneself, which has somber consequences.
Is it possible then to say that pain is good, primarily because it is a call to growth?  The Digara elders would say yes.  They believe that a person who has suffered is a person who has heard pain.  The person hears the pain as a creative action, connecting that person with his or her highest self, which prescribes an alternative to spiritual death.  So pain at least teaches us something.  It is commotion, e-motion and a call for rebirth.  It teaches that one must return to a mode of living that began with life itself.  And it draws from nature and the cosmos life-essence that seeks to align itself with the existing powers.