Is there a way to avoid pain, emotional or physical, in your life?

Hopefully, you landed on the obvious answer, no.

However, if you said yes by chance, you should bottle whatever secret you have and sell it. I’m sure you’ll do very well for yourself.

On the other hand, suffering from pain is not mandatory.

While I’ll admit that it’s impossible to eliminate suffering from life, there are times when you can choose to reduce how much you allow yourself to suffer.

Now you might think that suffering is a natural emotional response, and you’re right to some extent. But so much of suffering is also learned behavior. You see, we still retain much of the monkey see, monkey do, genetic makeup. This means that you’ve also learned to suffer by watching those around you.

For example, let’s take your emotional response to being slighted or wronged by another individual. You can choose to let them live rent-free in your mind and continue to suffer their wrongdoing towards you, or you can choose to move on. It all depends on how you choose to look and subsequently respond to the situation.

I agree that the preceding example might sound utopic. But if you think about it for a moment and perhaps even admit to the fact that while a person might have committed a severe grievance towards you, the second half of the equation, how and if you choose to continue to suffer, is up to you.

A similar mentality also applies to physical pain. If you live any measure of a normal life, then you will encounter physical pain, either from disease or injury. And while this might take a toll on your body, you can still choose not to suffer emotionally. There are countless examples, some that you might have even witnessed, of individuals with what some might consider horrific injuries or terminal illnesses that still manage to maintain cheerful and, in some cases, even a grateful outlook on life.

So, the next time you encounter an emotional or physical situation that causes you pain, remember, it doesn’t have to be pain and suffering. There is also the choice of pain without suffering.

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