Well, we don't find it easy to feel our tenderness and vulnerability and sadness, and it would seem to be even harder when facing difficulty. Like many spiritual truths, this is a paradox. My sense is that it's actually easier to feel our tenderness and vulnerability in settings of illness. There are a lot of people who would never otherwise do it. Their attention would be distracted from such things for all their lives.
Illness forces the issue.
It basically strips you of all your illusions, your masks and your roles, and eventually you discover something which cannot be stripped away, which is indeed who you are. Deep inside, I am whole. What seems to happen for people in the process of illness, if they're willing not to deny, if they're willing to be present, if they're willing to show up for their own lives, is that they have this precious opportunity to redefine who they are. They can discover what their strengths are and identify themselves in new ways. Often they move their locus of strength away from that which is impermanent, the body, toward that which is more unchanging.