I’m not sure where I heard this saying from, but what a wonderful saying! Everybody has pain one way or another. And by everybody, I mean everybody. Either physical, emotional, or mental, or a combination of all three.
I have just searched on the Internet and the actual quote has been attributed to the Dalai Lama amongst others. And the actual quote is “Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.”
According to the city of Hope National Medical Center in California,“Pain is a physical sensation or signal, indicating an event within the body. Suffering is the interpretation of that event and involves thought police judgements..”
So pain is physical and suffering is an interpretation of the pain. By acknowledging that we have pain, just like we have love, difficulty, sadness and joy etc, we complete our reality. But it’s what we do with that pain, that love, that joy, that defines us. The acknowledgement of it defines us.
So is joy a physical sensation? I think it is the momentary experience of a positive emotion. So, moments of joy, I would think of a smile and for me, that is a physical sensation.
Back to pain. We can suffer in silence,or we can make a lot of noise or demonstrate in a myriad of different ways and emotions. The pain is still a reality. Someone said to me that if you run from an issue or problem, it will follow you. But if you stop, turn around and look it in the eye, it will run from you. How true.
So, for me, it becomes a question of living with what we have, embracing what we have, loving we have and endeavouring to make the most out of what we have. I do get caught up from time to time in my own thoughts, issues, dilemmas, etc, but more and more I can often find a way out or a way round the issue. And bingo, I thought about the pain has disappeared and been replaced by a another daughter motion. And so it goes on. I live in the present not in the past.
I often have thought that my blog and the posts that I write are too positive. What I mean by that, is that I have thought that perhaps I should mix it up a bit with some more soul-searching,Introspective emotions that are quite simply depressing and depressive. But I realise is that is not me. I am a glass 3/4 full guy, Who naturally find the positive in many things. Everything. It’s kind of bizarre, as I chuckle to myself, that I am actually articulating a desire to be depressed, knowing that I am not depressed.
I don’t deny that there is never say die attitude is tiring. That my right side gives me pain and it’s certainly uncomfortable. But I do not dwell on it. I have too much that is going right for me. Both in my body and in my life.
Nice one geezer!
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