Month: May 2024

Another perspective on Suffering

Every single person in this existence is one way or another suffering, that is an indisputable affirmation.

Suffering is changing places în a Divine directed sequence in our lives with periods of joy and carelessness. One of the most unknown reasons for suffering, among other more obvious ones that I am not going to address in this article, is that it serves as a reminder of the blessings that we are taking for granted, that we forgot to be grateful for their presence in our lives, so the ungrateful gets a glimpse of how life is without those things that he/she must have taken for granted.

Let’s not go too far into complicated examples, but I will give you an example through a recent realization of mine while trying to sleep, recovering from a heavy cold: I was struggling with my blocked nose and sinuses for days, and to have the nose blocked is so frustrating and annoying.

As soon as I got both nostrils unobstructed I felt relieved, joyful, and grateful, and I realized how many apparently small things we are taking for granted, yet as soon as any of them are temporarily or permanently removed we start lamenting, we realize their true value and place in our lives and we realize what an ungrateful beings the humans are.

It’s so sad, because in nature such issues do not occur, but since we disconnected ourselves from it, by forgetting the fact that we are part of it, we developed atrocious features that not even predators in the animal kingdom display.

If an animal is saved or taken care of by a human, that animal will most likely be forever grateful to that human that shows them compassion. But humans become used to being helped and gratitude is less and less part of their approach to help regardless of what kind. I have noticed especially that the new generation, in their majority, is devoid of this precious feature.

So, from my own experience I can testify that as soon as we start taking things for granted, life will put its gears into movement towards the removal of that blessing that we disregard. It may take a while, or at times it can be quite fast, especially if it is a typical approach of ours.

This is the amazing teaching of life saying “Appreciate what you are having, or you are going to have it taken away”. And it works like that for people who believe that they can continuously trash their own bodies with bad food, alcohol and other ways of taking their body for granted.

Others maybe forgot to tell their partners how much they mean to them, how much they love and appreciate them. Oh, boy! It does miracles, it brings the light into the face of the other! Whisper it in their ear when they least expect it. Try it, especially if you haven’t done it in a while, you will feel that love reigniting, because whatever we put out there, definitely comes back to us. And it’s all because we’ve remembered to throw some wood over a smoldering, almost dying fire.

The secret is that nothing gets really taken away, but by not investing our energy into it, the connection with that thing is gradually diminished and damaged. So invest energy in Love, in taking good care of yourself and your dwelling place, reminding people in your life of how much you appreciate them, play with your kids and pets and leave the phone aside, and it’s not that suffering may disappear, since it alternates with good times like the ebbing and flowing of the ocean. in this paradigm we’re experiencung, but you will easily go over those periods of discomfort and most important of all, you will know that you did all that was in your capacity.

Sometimes even if we give our 100%, there’s no guarantee for success since it’s not in our power to control outcomes, but undoubtedly if we do our best diligently, we will definitely succeed more often than if we are not fully involved.

Ideally, we should remember at least once a week to count our blessings, to be grateful for the people, objects, and everything that we are being given, and to remind ourselves how lucky and blessed we are, and that’s the way to attract more blessings, instead of seeing what we are lacking and inevitably attracting more lack.

Flip the tables

There are moments, nowadays probably more often than in the past when we feel burdened, exhausted, cornered and in despair. I am sure that everyone can relate to this. In those moments if we manage to remember the title of this article, and try to relax and see what we tend to ignore, which is almost an impossible task for us to do under so much pressure, then we are breaking the system, that very system that is designed to keep us in ignorance and stressed out.

Let’s take an example: we missed a plane, which implies material loss, time loss, maybe missing a scheduled meeting, missing another opportunity.. Etc

Our first bodily reaction is panic and despair, followed by a multitude of thoughts and ideas, all abundantly bathed in cortisol and adrenaline which, in case you don’t know render us very dumb, because it puts us into the fight mode, so our capacity to see things clearly is greatly diminished. By allowing thoughts to create permutations and projections of different outcomes we dive deeper into that stressful mode we’re in, like one person being desperate for finding themselves in a hole, yet continuously digging and by continuing to do that, diminishing their chance to be able to exit that hole they created in the first place. Remember: if you are in a hole, stop digging.

How do we flip the tables? There are many choices. One will be to do exactly the opposite of what we used to do. Instead of lamenting, we accept the event fully and we can even try being grateful to life, for orchestrating such an unexpected and amazing event, which always carries with it a huge lesson that will be undoubtedly missed if we were to approach the situation in the old way we used to do.

Another way is to see the whole situation in a very pragmatic and precise mathematical manner: can I do something about it? If the answer is yes, you just do it. If the answer is no, relax, accept, and breathe calmly, and even if you don’t feel like it, fix a wide smile on your face. If we are surrounded by clouds or darkness and we feel like our entire fleet of boats has been sunk, find the power to laugh, and laugh out loud and immediately a shift of vibration will happen. The whole darkness in which we were about to drown will be dispelled.

I am talking from sheer experience and I have noticed that we can grow more and more immune to events that used to shake us. Like this, we manage to learn our lessons, and we evolve out of the limitations. Whatever event in our lives has a double potential: a destructive one and a transcending element. By flipping the tables you grow out of, and transcend that negative potential.

When something happens in your life, remember to pause, breathe calmly, banish thoughts, and see how you can flip the tables, how you can react and act differently than until now, try to look for “the juice” of the whole situation and extract it. You will step on the not-so-crowded road of self-mastery, or becoming the master of your life instead of a victim of it.

Good luck to you all!