Pain is our gateway to growth. Whether physically, mentally or emotionally, getting out out fo your comfort zone can be painful. However, its your mindset that makes the difference between and suffering.
We are going toggle you a little lesson today about pain vs suffering. Two very different things. The point we are going to make, right from the very beginning, is it is ok to be in pain. Pain is your gateway to making progress. What we don’t want is suffering.
A lot of people will connect the two but we will give you a couple of examples. First of all there are different types of pain, physical, emotional and mental pain. Lets start with mental pain, when you are studying that being any form of studying, your brain is in pain. You’re trying to take in this information, re-reading everything so your brain is in pain. It is not suffering though as it is your choice to study which leads to a development off the brain.
Mental suffering…
Mental suffering as another example, would be when the tax man comes calling and tells you your books aren’t quite right! You then heed to get your head in your books to figure out and solve the problem. As it is something you don’t want to do, this is then suffering. Feeling like it is out fo your control, ultimately you would have to get your head down and find the numbers he is looking for or hold your hands up and admit you are in trouble and pay the fine. It becomes suffering when you feel you are not in control of that pain.
Other Pains you can Have…
Some other pains are physical pain, we can feel this when we are working out. After making a choice to carryout some new challenges, I knew it was going to hurt and be painful but because it was my choice and wanted to do it, I also knew I was going to grow and learn from it, it wasn’t suffering.
Suffering in that regard would be, imagine you worked in a very hot factory and maybe also had to wear protective gear, which in turn increased your body temperature, therefore you are suffering these conditions everyday! You have no choice in this matter and there is nothing you can do about it, unless you found another job.
Emotional Suffering…
The last one would be emotional pain and suffering. Most people would associate this with some sort of emotional suffering, the experience of losing a loved one would be a huge moment of suffering. Its certainly something that you don’t want. However, an example I can give you for emotional pain without the suffering is when I joined the forces. I joined at 16 years old and the pain from leaving my family was awful! It was really tough for a few months after that moment of seeing my family at the train station. So this is emotional pain but certainly not suffering because it was my choice to go into the army.
Sometimes you have to go through the pain to reach a happier and more enjoyable other side. It his then realising that is ok to feel that pain because its a means to an end. Also, wanting to point out, if you ever think you are suffering, like losing a loved one, it is actually possible to flick the switch and change it from suffering so its just a pain. If you say to yourself this is good for my personal growth, it is something everybody in the world will experience at some point. But if you say it is really painful, I don’t want to be suffering with it, you see it as this way off growing. You will learn to live without these people and it can be very good for your personal development. As long as you can make that switch in your head, yes its still going to be painful and you will miss them, but its for your own benefit and how you will live your life.
What does not kill you makes you stronger!