ep. 14 Why We Choose Suffering

Podcast #14, Why We Choose Suffering:

Well-come back to another episode. We are glad to have you and are always excited to be with you.

Our discussion opens on defining the 3 types of Suffering:

1. The suffering of suffering. This is the one we’re all familiar with: the pain of birth, old age, sickness, and death.
2. The suffering of change. When you do get what you want, you can’t hold onto it. Even if things are going great now, it’s just a matter of time.
3. All-pervasive suffering. This is the type of suffering we are most likely not to recognize, yet the most instructive when we do. It’s the general background of anxiety and insecurity that colors even our happiest moments. Deep down, we fear that life doesn’t offer us solid ground and that our very existence is questionable.

There are different behaviors we do to encourage our own suffering which relates to our Self Limiting Behaviors.  Examples of this behavior are self-sabotage, procrastination and unnecessary worry/ fear tactics.

The cycle of suffering keeps us small, keeps us in a familial zone and stops growth. EX: Not speaking our truth when it comes to a person or situation.  How it hurts us inside and when we have the courage to do it; we are relieved and released from our suffering.

We had a clear awakening to this truth recently in one of the ayahuasca ceremonies. Our curandero had leaned over and said:  You seem to feel as if you must suffer in order to have growth, goodness and heal.  Flip the switch on that thinking.  Is it possible to grow and heal without having to suffer?  Can we gain a perspective that life is good without having to suffer?

We choose suffering because we think we can survive it.  It is a familiar pattern and we get into our comfort zone justifying the fact we have survived this before.

Our level of stress can become our normal world since we know how to operate through it.  We have to suffer to get somewhere good.  Our mind is set up to appease the negative and we accept it as normal. We often think this idea of chasing our greatness is the equivalent of something we do not deserve; we sabotage ourselves and we must suffer to have something good.

Suffering as a tool of motivation—“I don’t want to be like…..so I will hustle hard and suffer until that is not where I am.”  It is a very old story and there is no room for it.  Can we get to our greatness without the story?

To face the suffering you have created, you begin the best work you can do in this life.  In the unknown and doing the scary part anyway, it is the most powerful way to start a new positive pattern in your life.

You do not need fixing, you need healing! Move from Why Me into How can I be empowered now??

 

Book and activity referenced from: Spirit Hacking by Shaman Durek