“Repentance is not a torment for man, but the cleansing away of his unneeded, sinful layers. This is the freeing of a person from what is not his, what is extraneous to him, and what brings him only torment and burden. If an air balloon is burdened with extra weight it will not rise up to the sky. It is the same with man. In the sacrament of confession, God takes a person’s sins away and burns them, so that that person would spiritually rise up.”
(Fr Valery Dukhanin in pravoslavie.ru)