NaturallyResilient

About

Did you know that suffering has benefits? I am not talking about the surface ‘benefits’ that are not true benefits. You know what I mean; benefits such as attention, being catered to, having an excuse. These can actually prevent you from obtaining the true benefit of suffering.

Are you confused yet? Suffering that comes from hardships and illness can have a major positive impact on a person’s life. Yes of the impact is judged as bad but a lot of it is actually desirable. This suffering builds character; it creates a means for growth. True spirituality and insights can come to the person who goes through such a trial.

Our society tries real hard to eliminate the benefit of suffering. We pity the person. We try to make the person more comfortable sometimes to the point of knocking them out with drugs. We don’t even want to mention or acknowledge the problems a person is suffering through – to their face. Oh we talk to everyone else about it but if we come face to face with this person we tend to talk about superficial things like the weather.

The sufferer has much insight to give us on what is truly important but we have to be willing to listen.

When the sufferer finally comes through to the other side of their suffering you will often hear comments from them such as “I could not pay me a million dollars to do that again but nor would I take a million dollars to give up that experience.”

As a society, we need to honor our suffering and look for the benefits we can obtain in it. If you are in the midst of a suffering cycle right now, know that there are benefits. You may not be able to see them now. But when you are finally able to distance yourself from the current pain and it is all in the past, you will be able to look back and find the diamonds the experience left you with.