I have some good news for you: experiencing pain is inevitable. Yes, you hear me correctly! That’s actually good news! It’s good news because pain is just data. Information from your mind, body, or soul that something isn’t quite right. Without pain we would just keep inadvertently harming ourselves. Or remaining in situations that are detrimental to our health and wellness. ❤️❤️
Pain is a fleeting feeling resulting from specific choices or events. Suffering is the protracted distress associated with the ongoing stories that we create about our pain. 😔
And I have even better news for you: you can end your own suffering anytime you like. While life invariably involves pain, we create our own suffering. We choose suffering when we believe the stories we make up about our pain. When we act on these stories, over time they become negative love patterns. And eventually these patterns can converge into a downward spiral. 😔
BUT BECAUSE WE CHOOSE TO SUFFER, WE CAN ALSO CHOOSE NOT TO SUFFER. 🔥🔥🔥
Here are some quick examples: ✅ Homophobia (pain) ➡️ Self-Hate (suffering): most of us have experienced pain from the very real bias and bigotry of homophobia. That pain just sucks. But it only becomes suffering when we internalize those messages and start to believe them (that we are unworthy, incapable, unlovable, etc.).
✅ Rejection (pain) ➡️ Self-Limiting Beliefs (suffering): it hurts when people reject us. But when we create space for those feelings and truly experience them, the pain dissipates fairly quickly. It’s when we use our experience of rejection to create or bolster stories of our own unworthiness that we suffer. Perhaps we now tell ourselves that nobody will date us because we’re too tall or too short, too fat or too thin, etc.
✅ Getting Fired (pain) ➡️ Staying Stuck (suffering): nobody wants to get fired, and sometimes it’s completely outside of our control. But if we choose to leverage that event to write or bolster stories about the world’s scarcity or lack of agency, then we have entered the realm of suffering.
There are all sorts of examples of how we can turn pain into suffering. These are just a few.
Whatever flavor of suffering you might be experiencing, it’s critical we combat it as soon as possible. And there are all sorts of ways you can do this. 😍
If you want a quick way to break through any suffering you are currently experiencing, I recommend ATTENDING GAY MAN THRIVING LIVE!
This special live event will be a booster shot for your soul. A chance to immerse yourself in the love of your brothers so you can strike down your suffering and replace it with inspiration!
