As I am out with a cold at the moment, I ponder on the nature of suffering. This is not new, as long as humans have existed suffering has existed and humans have tried to deal with it. All religions talk about suffering, so do different philosophies. I would like to offer you my Christian perspective on suffering. If you are not a Christian, I believe you can still benefit from these tips since not all of them are based on religion.
Human life is suffering. We must accept this premise first. Life is not meant to be easy and every human being with go through their own share of hardships. But that doesn’t mean we need to crawl into our beds, envelope ourselves in depression, and give up entirely. Instead, I suggest embracing the suffering. But how exactly would we do that? In no particular order, here are a few tips:
Acceptance
In order to embrace your hardship, you first need to accept it. Try not to run from the problem, instead acknowledge that it exists and just sit with it for a minute.
Remember that it will pass
Whatever you might be suffering from right now, it will pass eventually and you need to remind yourself of that. Problems will not last forever and that's a very good thing. By the next day, you will probably feel different already. Maybe it will only take you an hour or maybe it will take a bit longer. But it will certainly not last forever and you can look forward to the point where you are free from that problem.
You are not alone
Remind yourself that whatever you are going through, someone else has probably experienced that or something similar in their lives. As mentioned before, suffering is something that concerns all of us. Everyone suffers and I think it is nice to know that we are not alone in our problems.
Do not get hung up on the hardship
When we are suffering, it is easy to get hung up on it in the moment. We might start to dig ourselves into a hole by complaining about the problem. This will not get you anywhere. Although it is important to not pile up your emotions, you need to be careful to not get too into it.
Go with the flow/ Let it go/ Don’t fight it
Sometimes when we suffer, we don’t really know what to do. And that’s okay. In some instances, you don’t need a solution ASAP. It can be beneficial to just let the situation unfold and not get too stressed/ emotional about it.
Have a comfort thought
I have found this to be very helpful. In situations of stress and suffering, I switch my thinking to comfort thoughts. Comfort thoughts are things that you can think about that bring you to a place of peace and, well, comfort. It could be your favorite show, a childhood memory, a type of food. Just anything you can think of that brings you to your happy place. It can be useful to make a list that you can pull out when you are in need.
Trust in God
I realize that many of you may not believe in God but it would be dishonest of me to not add this point since trusting in God has helped me through so much. So for those of you that are open to it, think about this. What comforts me is that in the end, God has planned out my life and it will all be okay. He has the power to make everything okay again and I know I can trust him.
In the end, we as Christians are called to embrace suffering, as Jesus Christ suffered on the cross for us. I really hope that with this blog post, I was able to help you or maybe prompt you to think about this topic.
Thank you so much for reading and have a blessed day <3
-Kate
Comments