Is there an alternative to human suffering?

Is there an alternative to human suffering? I read those words the other day and it’s been in my head ever since. Is suffering really something we can choose?

Life is full of ups and downs, and even if we don’t want it, things don’t always happen as we expected, therefore that makes us believe that although sometimes everything is happiness, there must be some kind of suffering.

But the reality is not like that, although pain exists, suffering doesn’t necessarily have to, and to understand this, we must first know what is the difference between them.

What is the difference between pain and suffering?

There is the pain, that is an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience that always occurs for some reason and gives us some teaching. We feel pain when something affects us directly and is necessary. Pain is related to lose something and it can be big or small depending on how much we care about it.

And then we have the suffering, that has its origin in the reaction itself to that pain. Suffering is the repression of pain, we suffer when we deny pain.

If you feel pain, you can regret and sit down to suffer or you can let the pain hurt, or accept it, look for its cause and its message, and let it go. Whatever you decide, the pain will be there, but if you face it, it will go away. However, suffering intensifies and prolongs the pain.

“Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional.” -Haruki Murakami

So what can I do to avoid suffering?

The pain is present in our life whether we want it or not. Suffering is a choice. Sometimes it is even a life position, a way to show yourself to others. Suffering can last a lifetime, even if the fact that caused it has already passed. In the face of suffering, not only do emotions intervene, but also the thoughts.

“Suffering is easier than acting.” -Bert Hellinger-

To stop suffering, first, we need to accept the pain, giving it space, and taking responsibility for it. We need to stop thinking about what happened and start thinking about what can I do to fix the situation and what can I do to move on.

Remember that we can learn about everything that happened to us, It can be from happiness or pain. We can decide on what point we let something affect us and what we can do with that situation.