On Adversity -- How It Is a Medicine to the Mind
Updated: Mar 10
Accepting the Inevitability of Conflict and Suffering
Conflict and suffering are inevitable parts of life. However, we can choose to view them negatively, with sorrow and misfortune, or positively, with open arms. If we choose to view conflict and suffering positively, we can use them to increase our strength, resilience, and endurance. We can also use them to gain maturity, confidence, and other benefits.
Interpersonal conflicts are always possible in a civilized society. However, we can learn to deal with them effectively by accepting their inevitability and by viewing them as opportunities for growth. That includes the most agonizing of moments.
It is not helpful to be miserable because of inevitable adversity. Self-pity will not help us cope with adversity or with societal struggles. We are taught to disdain discomfort and to hope for it to go away so that we can experience pleasure and ease once more. However, if the uncomfortable situation is already present and there is nothing we can do to make it go away, then there is no point in preserving counter-productive mindsets. Instead, we should focus on extracting the lemon juice out of the different lemons that life throws at us.
And I haven't had a genuinely nice time since the 2000's. Those who know me more, stop deluding yourselves. I was self-denying. How come? I do not often express what I really feel. Pain made me numb. Numbing allows me to mask far better. Facial hair is a good mask as well.
Finding Peace Within Screeching Walls of Object and Mind
While I seek to live a life of optimal serenity, I am aware that something very uncomfortable, such as involuntary adversity, is here to stay for a long time. In this case, my ambition becomes more of a hindrance than an asset, and it is no longer useful or beneficial in helping me cope or grow.
Because my quest for optimal serenity is not yet actualized due to noise and other disturbances, my hope to find optimal peacefulness might be proven impractical and even counter-productive. Not only will it make me unnecessarily miserable, but it might not help me become a stronger being by enduring their yells and sometimes initiating a counter-attack of my own.
From a purely logical perspective, a life of peace, while not possible in its absolution, can be achieved optimally. However, I hope you will agree with me that being very sensitive and not very resilient will make my search for optimal peace harder than it should be.
Hence, I give this personal example to show you that adversity, even if uncomfortable, may sometimes be proven as inevitable. Instead of saying to oneself "there's nothing I can do about it" and feeling completely hopeless, why not think the opposite: that adversity can be seized for one's own benefit? Like a bitter, yet rewarding medicine, as you suffer in the name of health.
In video games, we are eager to beat bosses that are not easy to beat. This is because many bosses in video games are obligatory in order for us to proceed in the game and reach new areas. We can, technically, not fight with them and stay in the same areas we have already unlocked and explored.
But why should we?
Mining the Depths of Pain for Uncommon Strength
In the same way, we can choose to see adversity as an opportunity to grow and become stronger. By facing our challenges head-on, we can learn and develop new skills that will help us overcome future obstacles. We can also build resilience and learn to cope with difficult situations more effectively.
Of course, this does not mean that adversity is easy or pleasant. It can be very challenging and even painful. However, by choosing to view adversity in a positive light, we can make it an opportunity for growth and development.
Why "think positive" and escape from the depths within you, when you can permit yourself to sink into these depths and face the following features:
Past traumas.
Heartbreaking moments.
Darker truths about those who are dear to you.
Consider reliving the past, from time to time, not for the purpose of clinging to it. No. Face its darker and sorrowful events, as if you are a miner about to make a fortune in his gold mine. Do not escape from your pain. Let yourself be engulfed in it, and see how it will reward you in exchange for allowing it to be experienced and expressed.
Give in to your anger, to your sorrows. They represent what you could've done, and couldn't. They also represent what you could've never done, and still cannot done. Face the truth day and day, night by night, and see how stronger you become, mentally, as your boundaries expand. That is because these pains, when normalized, normalize your reaction to them as well.
Pain is constructed entirely by the brain. And when it comes to the subconscious, it remembers everything you've experienced. In other words, all of the pain and torment you went through in life, exists somewhere in your brain.
And it provides the raw material to forge a new you, in order to live life, along and despite the haunting presence of pain in either past, present or future.
The Forge of Resilience
Life, like any grand adventure, is not a tranquil stroll through a flower garden. It's a trek through diverse, often harsh landscapes. Wanting to live a life pure of rugged mountains embodied in dense mist, is often unrealistic. And just as a climber wouldn't fear the steep climb, but embrace it as the stepping stones for the top, we must confront discomfort as the forge of our resilience.
It's not about seeking pain for its own sake, as it's often with fun. It's about recognizing its inherent role in shaping us, and developing us to become tougher, if not ruthless human beings. Through neuoplasticity, the strike of failure teaches us to rise stronger, the ache of loss sharpens our empathy, and hardship hones our determination to further accomplish our goals relentlessly. Each obstacle, if navigated with courage and wisdom, becomes a stepping stone, to the greater transformation of the self.
So, let us not fear from discomfort and disinterest. Let's teach ourselves the meaning of discipline, of acting independently of our own willpower. Let's embrace these repulsing energies, as a vital furnace, to fuel the industrial complex of bodies and minds we can become. And as such, it is often the breathtaking landscapes often lie beyond the most challenging climbs. There is no greater reward without a considerable amount of sacrifice.
Remember, words have the power to inspire and uplift or to inflict pain and division. Choose them carefully, for they can gratify, as well as torment. Don't say something you might regret saying at a later date. And make sure you are not brewing humans who care about you dearly, into heartless revenants.
Some have become heartless to seal away the pain you inflicted upon them, but as written before, it stays deep within the human mind, never to go away. And different people experience pain differently.
Some of these may return for revenge. Some of them are crow-like enough to not forget things you said about them, for they have exceptional memory. As such, they remember, for you were one of the triggers that made them break inside... Break inside, and form anew. Rise from despair. Reborn. For good and for bad. Stronger beings. Relentless beings. Heartless beings. Broken beings.
Do not give power, with your words, to people who can utilize your insults and hunt you down, should your paths ever cross again on this Earth. A certain person earlier in my life, knows that well.
