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“As humans, we are preconditioned to avoid both physical and emotional pain and seek pleasure. From childhood, we are constantly confronted with opportunities to experience both, and as we age, many of us still do not appreciate the subtle differences between pain and suffering. Unfortunately, this leads to the constant seeking of pleasure outside of us via different means while trying to avoid pain. In the most distorted of these outcomes, many resort to compulsory behaviors, which in the extreme may result in various kinds of addictions, from mild to truly devastating.

We all need to understand that pain is a necessary aspect of the human experience, and its constant avoidance may deprive us of one of the most enriching experiences of our lifetimes. All types of pain are unavoidable, from physical to emotional. We will experience it whether we want to or not. The rationalization of this critical fact is the cornerstone for understanding that a spiritually mature individual will, in fact, welcome and embrace pain because it is, in a sense, a compass showing us something that may not be in complete agreement with our lives. On the physical plane, pain shows us a discrepancy between reality and our bodies, pointing us to take corrective action to reverse the course that has led to the pain. In the case of illness, we are forced to take better care of our bodies, which are temples of the soul. In the event of emotional pain, we encounter something similar but with more profound implications, as it forces us to mature emotionally and, first and foremost, accept what is and is not. Both types of pain open the door for a deeper understanding of the optionality of the temporary pain caused by circumstances or the permanent suffering caused by our ego's non-acceptance of what is versus what we expected. In a nutshell, when we realize and accept that most situations in our lives that have caused us pain are entirely beyond our initial control—due to a lack of awareness of the factors that initiated the events and/or the exogenous forces working against our will—we finally allow ourselves to break free from the continuous necessity of accepting suffering as a condition.

We rarely control what enters our lives and do a mediocre job at managing it. As humans, we tend to see reality through the filters of our senses and our expectations of what it should be, instead of simply allowing everything to exist without creating labels. I have seen many people emotionally recover from irreversible physical conditions such as amputations and become more potent versions of who they were. I am no stranger to physical pain; my first vivid encounter happened at three years old when a friend of mine closed a heavy metal door on my hand while playing in his house. The door amputated the end of my left hand's middle finger to the bone. If that wasn’t traumatic enough, my parents took me to a doctor for a year. This doctor, without anesthesia, would unwrap my bandages every Wednesday and thoughtfully cut open the wound so the flesh would grow underneath the nail, restoring some semblance of a standard finger, albeit missing the very tip. Back then, I couldn't understand the pain, and I suffered greatly, both physically and emotionally. Looking back at that younger version of me, I see the valuable lesson in that experience – I now have a semi-normal-looking finger and, indeed, a much stronger character.

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