Pain is inevitable, but suffering is optional

Reflections

Pain is inevitable, but suffering is optional.

Experiencing pain is an inevitable part of being human.

When we fall, we scrape our knee and it hurts.

When we experience a breakup, we cry for what we lost.

When a woman gives birth to a newborn baby, she experiences a tremendous amount of pain as her body births the baby.

To be human means to experience pain sometimes.

It’s unavoidable.  And to avoid it, we are actually avoiding something that is so incredibly intertwined with the human experience.

You could almost go so far as to say: To avoid our pain means that we’re avoiding our own humanity. We’re avoiding something that is what makes us human.

Suffering emerges when we avoid our pain.

When we try to stuff it away.

When we push ourselves to ignore it.

When we try to pretend it’s not there.

It’s hard to take in painful realities. In fact, it can be really, really hard. But, more often than not, what we find on the other side is often far less scary than what we thought it would be.

The scraped knee heals itself.

The sadness of the breakup dissipates.

The newborn baby arrives.

And we discover something new about ourselves and life itself.