As emotional beings, it is natural for us to feel pain. When we lose someone close to us, seeing family and friends going through their challenges, when our plans go awry and years of effort evaporates in days, when someone close to us hurts us, or when we see so many around us struggling with basics, we feel pain. In a way, it is a dimension of our care and love.

We often suffer because of our pain, but we need to differentiate between our pain and our suffering.

Pain is of the event; suffering is our continuous emotion attached to the memory of the event.

Pain causing events pass away; suffering is regularly re-living the past in our mind.

Pain goes away over a period of time as we move on; suffering is holding on to the past and not letting go.

Pain opens our heart and we become reflective and grow from our experience; suffering clouds our thinking and we become bitter from the experience.

Pain evokes compassion, prompting us to reach out when we see others going through what we may have been through; suffering evokes negativity as we find someone to blame.

Pain is a stepping stone that propels us to the next level; suffering is a crutch we hold on to, living in self-pity.

What happens to us is not in our control, some events will be painful. But we do have a choice how we respond to our situation, either growing from it or suffering long after. The choice is ours. Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional.