Pain is Inevitable, Suffering is Optional

“I have found that pain is inevitable, but suffering is optional,” Devorah said to Barak. The general looked a question at her. “Suffering - anguish, distress and misery - does not have to follow automatically from pain. Things the ego labels ‘bad’, such as a broken arm, or cancer or a flood, will cause pain. But if we allow it, the pain will depart. We hold on to it by worrying, blaming and anguishing and that is a choice, an unnecessary choice.

“Pain stretches us, pushes us past our comfort zones, is part of living and growing. We suffer because we fear discomfort, are content with where we are, don’t think we need to grow and fear the unknown. Go where the pain is leading you. Ask it what it wants you to do or change. Nothing ever goes away until it has taught us what we need to know.”