A message for those in pain.
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:
The failure to understand the difference between pain and suffering is the cause of more silent misery worldwide for human beings everywhere, than just about anything else.
The reality is that most people don’t even allow themselves to tell the truth about whatever pain they might be in. And we live in a world today that is completely dedicated to the avoidance and distraction and sedation when it comes to pain and discomfort.
So you ask the average person, hey how are you doing? They go, “I’m fine.” But are you really?
So this message is for that rare person who has actually begun to tell themself the truth, that things maybe are not as good as you thought that they once were.
Or maybe things are not as good as you’d like them to be and you’ve begun to feel that uneasiness, you’ve begun to feel that pain but then what do you do with it?
We live in a culture that is wired to ignore pain. So one of the skills that we have to develop is understanding the massive difference between pain and suffering. These two could not be further apart.
Pain is simply feedback. It’s simply a signal that you get in your body, in your mind, it’s a signal that you begin to feel, a set of sensations that doesn’t have any meaning by itself and yet if we’re not careful, it’s easy to assume that this signal of pain is just something you have to accept.
This is just something you have to put up with. This is just how life is and then you start to connect with other people that are also experiencing this sensation, this feedback called pain.
And then what do people do? They normalize it. They say, “Well this is just how it is.” And you start hearing things like, “Well, it is what it is.”
Look, nobody who was really living a fulfilled life uses that phrase, it is what it is.
Your understanding of pain and the difference between pain and suffering is a fundamental skill that you must develop. Pain is just feedback. It’s just a sensation. It’s just information for you to do something with.
But suffering, suffering is completely optional. There is no reason on this planet why you must continue to suffer. Suffering, no matter how many times it’s been glorified and honored and no matter how many tributes and monuments humans build to those that have suffered, that doesn’t mean that it’s right. That doesn’t mean that it’s necessary.
In fact, suffering serves no purpose because it’s totally different than pain. Pain is just feedback. That serves an amazing purpose to get you present so you do something different to change the situation to get out of pain, ’cause when you’re in pain, and you pretend everything’s just fine, when that quiet voice inside of you is screaming at you, saying, “This isn’t working.”, is when you say, “Shut up!”, ’cause you don’t want to deal with it.
Look, I get it. I know it takes courage to face your pain. It takes courage to feel your pain. But that’s pain’s purpose.
Pain’s purpose is to get you present and once you become present to your pain, new awarenesses start to bloom and blossom.
You begin to have new insights. You become aware of choices that you didn’t know you had. You begin seeking solutions and alternatives. You begin to research different ways of improving your situation.
Now this pain has a purpose. Now you’re not in suffering because you’re making progress. You’re expanding and you may not know what’s next and that might be scary.
It might be terrifying to know that what is happening isn’t working anymore. But you don’t know what to do next.
And this might be happening in your physical body. It might be happening in your job or in your business. And it might be happening in a personal relationship.
But my message here for you is that you don’t have to suffer. Suffering is optional.
And I know that it hurts sometimes. It might hurt a lot. But that hurt, that pain, is a gift.
It’s only here to get you present, so instead of distracting yourself, instead of lying to yourself, instead of saying it’s not that bad, instead of beating yourself up because you are where you are, why not just take responsibility and allow that pain to become a teacher. Allow that pain to become a catalyst. Allow that feedback and that signal to motivate you to do something different.
This is when suffering ends. And you don’t have to suffer. The purpose of life is not suffering. There are no prizes for the person who suffers the most, not in the real world, not in the natural world.
So stop suffering. Embrace whatever feedback you’re getting, even if it’s painful, because that’s the moment the pain begins to go away.
That’s the moment your entire life begins to shift because you’ve taken back control of your own powers of choice.