It depends on how you look at It

A lot of people upon hearing the word suffering they immediately associate negative connotations with It, thinking that If a person is in a state of perpetual pain whether physical, mental or just struggling financially he/she's suffering, though It doesn't encompass the full picture of what suffering can be and how It can really be positive. On the opposite, look at the word effort, something that's related with hard work and the pursuit of goals, no matter how challenging they are, something that every victory and anything worthy of being called beautiful has behind. What many don't realize is that effort and suffering are tightly related, It being the subject of this article, talking about how perspective can change a lot of things, turning them for the best and giving you a better view of what suffering for the right things is. Let's begin:

The best medicine is the one that tastes the worst

Noone wants to feel pain, whether in the form of physical pain (a contusion, fractured bone or even being stabbed) or mental pain (PTSD from abuse or traumatic experiences, depression, anxiety), so they always choose the path of least resistance when trying to do things, all which leads most of us to stay in our comfort zone and live a relatively dull life without any prevision for the future, which ironically will leave us more prone to suffer from unavoidable sudden changes when they happen and make us have twice the pain when It occurs: The pain of the event and the surprise of not being prepared for It.

However, the discomfort related to suffering can also be found in activities that are actually benefitial for us, such as working out, solving a difficult problem or even looking at our flawed selves when we go to therapy. Knowing this, we can see that everything that requires effort has suffering as one of the main components for success, all to the point that we can dare to say that effort is just suffering for the right reasons.

Looking at things differently

One of the reason we might not do the things we really want to do is because of our negative relationship to suffering, saying that all those activities are too hard to perform for someone like us and that the pressure would be too high. If you see suffering as something that is actually good for you in the long run, It will make you not only stronger though more resilient and intelligent, increasing the quality of the decisions you take and resulting in huge improvements in your life. The next time an inconvenient comes your way or a difficult task makes Itself present, you will know that It is actually the best thing that could have happened, as It will make you suffer in the right way.

I hope that this article could have given you a different perspective on what suffering can really be, making you know that the ability to withstand It and to actively pursue It while accomplishing your goals is the real difference between a strong person and a weak one. Thank you for your support and good luck!