Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional
-Haruki Murakami
Pain is not the same as suffering.
According to meditation teacher Shinzen Young, the key to happiness is the understanding that suffering is caused by resisting pain.
We can’t avoid pain in life, he said, but we don’t necessarily have to suffer because of that pain…
He explains it in the form of an equation:
Suffering = Pain X Resistance
Three things I learnt from this –
-Pain is real; suffering is relative.
-The more I resist pain; suffering grows in multiples.
-I can’t control pain, but I can work on my resistance to it.
Self Compassion could be the key.