On Pain and Suffering

“Pain in life is not optional, suffering is.” –Author Unknown

Without a single doubt. You will experience pain in life, both physical and emotional. All people will recognize this as true. Now, suffering is a state of emotion and thought. Suffering is a state that amplifies physical and emotional pain. To suffer, is to allow the pain (physical or emotional), to have an overriding and defining influence on your life.

Let’s see a little bit about how suffering works in thought.

I’m miserable and I always will be.

Pain rules my world. The only thing I do is hurt.

I can’t deal with anything. My life is hopeless.

Let’s see what kind of difference a minor shift in perspective might make.

I’m anxious a lot, but sometimes I’m not. I really enjoy myself when I’m not.

I have a lot of pain, but I get a lot of enjoyment out of writing and sewing.

Some things are hard for me to cope with, but other things I cope with quite well!

These thoughts may seem like a minor shift in perspective, but they are really a major shift in the manner of living life. Whatever situation you find yourself in, you want to do everything you can to add positives to your life–to give your life that extra meaning. That shift in perspective can help you, if nothing else, to divert your attention from your pain (whether it be physical or emotional). Now, I never advocate lying to yourself. For example, I wouldn’t tell you to tell yourself, “Hey!! My life is great!!!” if it is not. BUT, I will tell you to not focus on only the negatives and to make your life more than the negatives. By adding positives, you will shrink the negatives. Often, you have the knowledge of what will help you to feel better….what helped you to feel better in the past? Start doing those things that you can do again, and put less emphasis on what you can’t do.

Now, these approaches do not eliminate pain, but may help prevent suffering. And the goal really can’t be to eliminate pain, but we can shrink its significance.