Does life sometimes hurt, and sometimes it trembles so hard that it’s hard for you to get up. When we go through a painful event, we feel compelled to go through intense emotional processes. Processes in which we enter through the inertia of reality, but which, if we want to get out of it, we will need a lot of strength, otherwise bitterness and pain will consume us.
In fact, remaining inert in the face of pain is a personal choice, so, rooted in suffering, we avoid the inner journey that culminates in acceptance, serenity of understanding and personal development.
- “There is no pain that makes you suffer.
- Pain exists to make you more aware.
- And when you realize it.
- Unhappiness disappears.
- -Osho-.
Pain and suffering are part of life, it is important to note that we often use these two terms interchangeably, however, to treat them properly, it is important to understand what distinguishes them.
Pain, in its psychological dimension, is an emotion that can occur in certain situations or problems, affects us physically, emotionally and mentally and lasts until the person recovers, in this sense the pain implies acceptance and contact with what we feel. It is also necessary to emphasize that the time required is proportional to the magnitude of the event that produced the pain, from the perspective of each one.
“As soon as the pain passes we tend to forget. In any case, advances in science, thanks to anesthesia and painkillers, have left us less accustomed to pain than our ancestors. Is this a fact that justifies our growing fear?
On the other hand, suffering goes further. When we are unable to accept reality and continue our lives, suffering appears, this state will return us to thoughts and emotions that will unbalance us and sicken us, so suffering would be an unnecessary consequence of pain.
“And in the middle of winter, I finally knew that there was an invincible summer in me. -Albert Camus-
It is important to note that suffering has much more intensity and duration than emotional pain and can last indefinitely, for example, the pain of losing a loved one is inevitable, but when this wound is not healed, suffering occurs, this prevents the possibility of acceptance and growth.
Post-traumatic growth occurs when a person accepts what happened and reconstructs their beliefs, it is a process similar to what happens when a person has to rebuild their home after an earthquake, after a painful event, we have the opportunity to reflect on how we want to rebuild our lives.
On the other hand, these new beliefs that we adhere to our thinking also promote the development of resilience, just as during this process of reconstruction the person tends to discover previously unknown strengths and characteristics.
“Find a place within you where there is joy, and that joy will eliminate pain. -Joseph Campbell-
In reality, nothing has the power to make us unhappy except our own attitude. According to psychotherapist Joan Garriga, any loss can become an opportunity to grow as a person, to relieve us and free us from attachments and identifications.
At the same time, the great risk of painful processes is not to overcome them and not to accommodate them, in addition to the existential positions that fuel suffering: denunciation, victimism, revenge, inflexibility, pride?In this sense, it must be mentioned that pain is an inherent process of existence and that it is important to grow and understand what we are part of in a more rewarding way.
“I was a lucky man in life, nothing was easy for me. -Sigmund Freud-
Most of the time you learn what’s painful and can ultimately cause suffering. In contact with the most heartbreaking pain, we become aware of our fragility while placing ourselves in a position that allows us, like no other, to face each other. knows our greatness Our value.
And it is on this path that we learn that everything changes and that the sun always appears after a cloudy sky, with the beauty and strength of the new auroras, it is at this moment that we discover the strength that dwells within us, overcoming a painful path and the inertia that led us to pass it.
In the path of pain we also observe that chaos always creates a new order, a new order that combines learning and experience to continue advancing, faster and faster, with more wisdom, with more serenity and awareness that moments of pain have potential. Will these be moments of great change? Great opportunities.
“The most beautiful people I met were those who knew defeat, knew suffering, knew the struggle, knew the loss, and found a way out into the depths. -Elisabeth Kubler Ross-