“Listening to and understanding our inner sufferings will resolve most of the problems we encounter” – Thich Nhat Hanh

Recently, I have listened to an audiobook ‘Fear: Essential Wisdom for Getting Through the Storm’ by Thich Nhat Hanh.

It is a treasure house of wisdom. I like to see such books as work of emotional intelligence. I liked the author’s one on one style of writing the subject and as a reflection of his profound spiritual experience. He is truly an enlightened soul. I look forward to reading all his books to deepen my understanding of life.

Especially, One phrase “Love your sadness” caught my attention. It felt weird in knowing it. What’s there to love ‘sadness’? what does it mean? It triggered a chain of thoughts in my mind.

When you accept the sadness, pain or grief, you internalize it, allowing your mind and body to accept this input and observe how it processes this emotion. How would you view life in such circumstances? While taking in your painful emotions, You have nothing to resist in life. You can be an open soul, ready to welcome any kind of emotion. The time and energy which you have, can then be effectively used. You will be able to dedicate your entire consciousness available, for the greater challenges of life, rather than crying out a river.

Life is always changing and it draws its experiences from various contexts. An ever happy life is devoid of meaning. A radical life demands unexpected situations and lessons of life, aiding in the overall growth of the person. A life without hurdles, money & material riches to waste and apparently no challenges to face, is a boring definition of life. The originality of life is beyond all the superficial drama of this world. To understand the dimensions of life, explore all that comes to you, including sadness, pain, grief etc. ” Pain is inevitable, Suffering is optional”

Put yourself to test and see how you respond and mold it for a good change. Do not resist such invisible teachers. Do not waste your energy in blaming these tough situations and cursing your karma. Save your energy for becoming wiser. Learning from standard sources of life is common but learning from any source is audacity.