Suffering Is Optional - When Freezing, Freeze!

<p>Pain is natural and inevitable in life. There&rsquo;s nothing wrong with it. It only becomes a problem when we turn it into suffering. Suffering is all that is added to pain, our ideas about it, and fears that it will go on forever. All kinds of catastrophic expectations arise, and we judge ourselves for being in pain. But when pain is just left as it is, when we do not interfere with it, it stays a short while and then departs. Pain feeds on our attention, on our fighting and refusing it, declaring that pain is an enemy. Pain is not an enemy, it is simply a momentary experience we are having now.</p> <p><strong>Pain and the effort to be separate from it are the same thing.</strong></p> <p>For many of us, life is a dangerous journey, where no one comes out alive. None of us gets out unscathed, either. As we move along, we accumulate many wounds and scars. For some, the entire purpose of the journey is to keep safe from harm and avoid as much pain as possible.</p> <p><a href="https://medium.com/illumination/suffering-is-optional-when-freezing-freeze-dd3a6b296c94"><strong>Learn More</strong></a></p>