Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional

It is not the pain that makes us suffer, it is what our mind does with it. How we interpret that pain and the power we give it to influence our life.

Our mind does not like to feel displeasure, discomfort. We naturally avoid unpleasant emotions and seek satisfaction. But, all emotions have an adaptive function. Would it be appropriate to be happy during a grief? Not to get angry if someone violates our rights?

So, what can we do? Instead of fighting the pain, simply observe it as an element of your here and now. You are not that pain. In other moments or situations things work to your liking but there is one (or some, but not all) current experience that hurts.

Stop fighting against the pain and seeing it for what it is: a present event. It does not make the feeling less unpleasant but gives it the status it really has in our lives. It is about broadening our gaze, change the observer. Trying to misidentify ourselves from it, understanding it as part of our life along with other pleasant, unpleasant and neutral experiences.

It is not about seeing the glass half full and denying the empty half, it is about seeing its totality.