Читать книгу THRIVE! 7 Strategies for Extraordinary Living - Felicia T. Scott - Страница 6

Pain makes you feel singled out. Though you know you’re not the only person experiencing pain, you somehow feel as if you are alone to face it. That is because when pain touches your life, it touches your uniqueness. Don’t be alarmed by its arrival, the fact that you are experiencing pain is just an indicator of your humanity. Pain isn’t picking on you. In fact, pain isn’t prejudiced and doesn’t hold any biases. Regardless of who you are, regardless of your economic status, regardless of your race — pain will touch you. It is the only real equal-opportunity employer.

So, what do you do with pain? The first thing you have to do is define it. You can define it as “something I will never, ever get over,” or you can define it as “an opportunity for growth and development.” It is up to you. Torrential rains fall on the rich and poor man’s harvest alike. The poor man weeps as he watches what the rain has destroyed. The rich man goes out into the fields to see what can be salvaged. If nothing can be salvaged, he plants a crop that can thrive in the new conditions.

When hit with hard times, our immediate response is to focus on the unfairness of it. This attitude is nonproductive and only serves to send your mind and emotions into a tailspin. If you’ve let yourself go there — stop! Take your power back! You can’t change what has already happened to you. You just have to be smart enough to know how to work with it and get the most out of it. You’re not cursed. You’re just going through the process of living and that involves some pain. And like it or not, it will probably be the very thing that will make you a better friend, listener and person. People who have experienced pain and dealt with it from a healthy perspective tend to be more sensitive to others and can connect on levels of intimacy that only come from experience.