Suffering Is A Natural Condition Of Being Human

The discipline of suffering, of great suffering, do you not know that this discipline alone has created all the improvements of man until now? — Beyond Good and Evil, Friedrich Nietzche.

Suffering is a natural condition of human beings. How are we going to suffer? Are we going to let suffering overwhelm us and sink us into a pit of despair? Or will we use it to harden us and lead us to a fulfilled life?

The suffering has been stronger than any other teaching. It has bent me and broken me, but — I hope — to a better shape.

Suffering is necessary for empathy. It is a powerful link that instantly connects us to people who have suffered from the same ailments as us. It is an understanding that goes beyond words.

What should one say in each difficulty?

This is what I trained for! This is why I exercised!

I consider you unhappy because you were never unhappy. You went through life without an adversary; No one will know what you were capable of, not even yourself.

Virtue withers without an opponent: you see how much its greatness and how much its power is the moment it shows what it is capable of with its resistance. –Seneca.

Seneca believed that prosperity achieved without bruises is weak and easy to defeat. That which has been achieved in constant struggle against discomfort, produces calluses in the face of insults and does not surrender to misfortunes. He assures that this kind of man fights to the end and never gives up.

When we embrace voluntary suffering, we are better equipped for the involuntary suffering that inevitably comes.

If it’s difficult, it’s teaching you. If it’s hard, it’s hardening you. If it is painful, it is purifying you. If he delays, he is disciplining you. No matter what it is, if you accept it and learn from it, you will become better, wiser, stronger.

No woman wants a weak man. No child wants a weak father. No brother wants a weak brother. Strength, then, is not a choice but a responsibility.

You can’t break a man the same way you would break another being. The harder you hit him, the stronger he gets up.

If ten spears go to battle and nine break, has it been war that forged the one that remains? No. The only thing that war has done is identify the spear that does not break.

Scientists involved in the Biosphere 2 project were surprised to discover that the trees they were studying did not reach maturity. Later, they discovered that trees needed the wind to grow strong. Exposure to strong winds caused “stress wood” to grow, which is the fundamental piece of the tree’s integrity and resistance. And also, it caused the root system to strengthen.

Are we different from these trees?

What prevents action, promotes action. What gets in the way, becomes the way. –Marcus Aurelius.

Man desperately seeks a rival, a challenge, a difficulty to overcome and prove his worth to himself. We live in such an abundant, rich and comfortable time that we have had to design places of discomfort to voluntarily go to: gyms.

Do not forget that you come from a long and unbroken lineage of ancestors who have survived unimaginable adversities and difficulties. Their genes and blood run through your body. Without them, you wouldn’t be here. You are heir to an impressive tradition and, as a descendant, you are capable of the same things they were capable of. That’s what you’re here for, that’s what you were created for. Keep that in mind when things get difficult.

✍ ️ Practice: Do something unpleasant every day.

• Cold water baths.
• Physically demanding exercises.
• Go a day without eating.
• Get up soon.
• Don’t run away from complicated conversations.
• Do not use air conditioning or heating.