Overcoming Suffering In Order To Be Stronger

We should understand suffering as a learning process, as a test from which we emerge stronger and which helps us to cope better with difficult situations.

One often hears that one gains freedom  as soon as one manages to control the suffering and switch off.

It is undoubtedly a beautiful sentence. However, we cannot avoid the following question while reading:  “And how do you do that? How can you switch off fears, defeat and suffering?

In order to control our emotional state  and transform negative energies that are besieging our minds, it  is important to understand the internal “anatomy”.

Suffering and sadness arise in the brain through subtle and very strong mechanisms that have a very specific purpose. Then we will go into more detail about it. We hope you can benefit from it.

Suffering and the sad brain

Suffering is an internal dialogue that we create in our brain. Painful experiences, losses, failure, betrayals, and bitter disappointments can all lead to suffering. However, one should always differentiate between physical and emotional pain.

• The suffering that threatens us and can lead to depression has its sole origin in an inner dialogue.
• Some people face these situations very differently, even if they have a similar traumatic experience. It all depends on the inner resources and the dialogue we have in our minds.

As soon as you can switch off negativity, calm returns. And a balance can be struck.

These ideas are basically easy to understand. However, they are still very difficult to implement. Finding the switch for bitter, negative thoughts to put an end to suffering is very complicated.

Because  emotional pain clings to the soul. They hold you captive and take the air you breathe. It is not at all easy to get rid of it again, even if we long for it.

The sad brain works differently

The human brain is made up of millions of nerve cells. These form an amazing and unbelievable network that also enables our consciousness.

Neuroscientists tell us that fear has a special power over our brain.

Structures such as the hippocampus or the amygdala enable the brain to absorb information from the environment in order to make us aware of risks without our being aware of them.

• The brain wants us to survive, so it uses  negative emotions such as fear, sadness, or suffering to alert us  that something is wrong.

• In diagnostic tests, it can be seen that sadness affects nearly 70 different areas of the brain.
• The amygdala, the hippocampus, the prefrontal cortex or the anterior cingulate cortex are some of these areas, as is the insular cortex, which is particularly interesting.
• The island bark is also associated with body perception and taste. All of this explains why everything seems to stand still and lose meaning and even taste when we are sad and suffering.
• Even when we try to switch off suffering in order to return to reality, our brain cannot react the way we would like it to. We are incapable of this.

Because the internal music is on a different wavelength. The sad brain has turned off the noise of life. 

Overcome suffering in order to be stronger

It is worth recalling a beautiful statement from Leonard Cohen:  “There is a crack in everything through which the light penetrates.”

If something is broken or broken, it does not mean that there is no progress in life.

Wounds are healed, even if we can never go back to their original state. We will never be the same again.

• But we can be stronger. Because the crack  enables the light of wisdom, experience and knowledge to penetrate, which illuminates our being through the change. 
• To overcome suffering, you need time. You already know that the brain follows a different rhythm and works on a different level. Therefore, you should be patient and rely on those who love you.
• Your brain wishes to “stand still”  to focus all energy on finding a solution to the worries, to the pain. 

Your only job is to change something about yourself or your surroundings to make you feel better. Accept what happened and seek motivation in new, different things because these two steps are fundamental to moving forward.

Neurologists always point out that it is very helpful to understand the mechanisms of the brain in order to be able to deal with sadness and suffering more easily.

Remember that  suffering doesn’t last forever, it’s just a temporary process. And one can overcome it in order to learn from it and move forward to adapt to the sea of ​​life which is sometimes very complex.