A word of warning: if you’ve discovered how to live consciously through reading, attending workshops, or meditating, it doesn’t necessarily translate into actually living consciously. Conscious living is a choice we make every moment, especially in the painful moments. Part of being conscious is being able to accept that pain is one of the things we will face in our lives on earth, but (as many of us know) suffering is a choice.
Suffering comes from us interpreting our pain as being bad, wrong, and something that shouldn’t happen to us. What if we chose to reinterpret the experience of pain as a part of our life plan? First off, it may actually reduce the periods of pain because when we accept it consciously instead of judging or being resigned to situations, they don’t have the same hold over us. Secondly, we can choose to channel the pain as fuel to learn and grow from. All exponential growth is the byproduct of overcoming periods of pain and turning things around. If you took a moment to play any breakthrough experience in slow motion, you will see that the growth is in those moments where you made a powerful choice to think differently and stop being the victim of circumstances. It could be to finally decide I don’t deserve to be abused anymore and end a relationship, or choose to stop punishing ourselves for mistakes we’ve made in the past.
This month I invite you to think about what pain have you been facing recently, and what would be a new way to interpret this without making yourself the victim. To my beloved Hong Konger’s, I encourage you to apply these questions to the current situation that’s been happening and find a way to grow from reinterpreting all that’s happening around us.