Feeling Pain Without Suffering

Imagine you personally know me, we are on friendly terms, and you are feeling happy. Suddenly, I pinch your arm. This pinch will cause you a little bit of pain, but nothing significant. Since you know me, you are likely to dismiss this as a joke or a bad attempt at humor, so you continue positively.

However, if you don’t know me and I were to suddenly sucker punch you, you are likely to drop everything you are doing and engage your fight-or-flight reflex, becoming alert, alarmed, and generally in a negative mood.

Of course, you could become quite negative in the first scenario and continue to be positive in the second scenario by choosing your reactions and not allowing yourself to be a slave to worldly events, regardless of how positive or negative they may seem. This is important because, to reach Optimal Happiness, we need to learn to control our emotions and not let them control us.

To do so, we can realize that negative life events don’t automatically need to lead to suffering. In other words, as the title of this blog post suggests, we can learn to feel pain without suffering.

My Scooter Accident

A few years ago, I had a really bad scooter accident where a scooter fell on my leg, crushing my bone. When this happened, I was rushed to the hospital and soon after operated on. At that point, the doctor told me that I would never be able to walk without a walking stick, and for the rest of my life, I would have some sort of pain in my leg.

Fast forward two years, I went to see the doctor who operated on me, who was astonished to see me walking as if nothing had happened. He proclaimed it to be a miracle, the best possible recovery, and a one-in-a-million chance for my type of accident.

Yet, I always knew that I would have a complete recovery, which is arguably why I had the best possible recovery. After all, it is a well-known fact in the medical literature that your attitude towards your recovery will guide your recovery.

Become Happy And Win In Life

It’s the pure law of attraction in action. What you focus on, you will attract. In my case, I was focusing on my best possible life, which included being healthy and active. This also included having healthy legs so that I can perform my favorite activities like running, jumping, roller skating, and doing deadlifts.

This law of attraction works for me in all aspects of my life. I am generally always happy and view things in a positive light, as I consider myself one of the happiest people alive. As a result, positivity spills over into virtually all parts of my life, and I don’t even have to know specifically what I want. I receive everything as if it were handed to me on a silver platter simply because I’m always happy.

This makes me question the value of negative emotions in society today, as they are often seen as necessary, obligatory, constant, ongoing, and unavoidable. However, my experience, and that of my students, shows that we can feel pain without suffering, proving the idea that negative emotions are necessary wrong, at least to the extent they are currently seen in our today’s society.

Therefore, we can experience extreme physical pain without it necessarily leading to psychological suffering, as was the case when I broke my leg.

In fact, not only did I surprise the doctor who operated on me, but also all his staff and doctors who assisted me after the accident, as I maintained a positive and upbeat demeanor during my trip to the hospital despite being in a lot of pain.

Benefits of Positive Emotions

This is obviously not natural, and some may question the benefits of being so brainwashed by positivity that even in the most extreme events they brush off as if it was nothing.

However, after the accident, there was no longer a need for negative emotions, as everything that could happen already did, and now it is time to deal with the aftermath of the accident.

Moreover, there are a million less emotionally intense things that happen to us every day, and if we constantly become negative over every little inconvenience, we will be unhappy indeed, which, on a side note, is a daily event for many people.

In this way, the law of attraction works based on whether we are positive or negative, to the extent that we are positive or negative. For example, if we are negative 80% of the time, that’s exactly how much the law of attraction will play in our favor, meaning that we can only achieve 20% of positive results due to the law of attraction.

In turn, Optimal Happiness teaches us to strive to be as close to 100% happy as possible, working towards attracting the best-case scenario in every step and every part of life.

Also, positive emotions bring out our best selves, as it is scientifically proven that, on average, positive people excel significantly more than their negative counterparts in:

– productivity,
– creativity,
– being liked by others,
– having better relationships, 
– making more money,
– being successful,
– their body working better,
– the law of attraction working in their favor,
– and virtually every other area of life.

All these advantages and more are discussed in greater detail in my book Optimal Happiness, which has received 5-star reviews on Amazon and should naturally be on your reading list due to its potential to change your life.

Solution-Oriented Approach to Happiness

Naturally, we need to be prudent, trying to avoid the worst-case scenario, but we don’t have to be negative and suffer while doing so. It is important to realize that bad things can and will happen to us whether we want them to or not, as realistically speaking, we will never have full control over our environment.

This thought alone can make some people depressed, as they want to live in a fairytale where nothing bad can happen to them, and every day is filled with sunshine, rainbows, and butterflies, which is ultimately unrealistic.

Instead, we should accept that negative events will happen to us and act accordingly. When bad things happen, first of all, we should acknowledge that we were expecting a negative event, although we didn’t know precisely what it would be and when it would occur. Secondly, we should choose our response, ideally adopting a solution-oriented approach to problem-solving rather than a problem-oriented response. 

Lastly and ideally, we want to do it all in a positive state, as this is when we bring the most inner resources to the table and use the law of attraction to our advantage.

No Suffering in Practice

In my case, a scooter fell on my leg, causing intense pain, screaming, and crying. Despite the physical pain, my mind remained at peace. I did not overthink the situation but accepted that what had happened could not be changed. Instead of dwelling on the problem, I focused on a solution, creating a plan for my recovery and executed it to the best of my ability. 

I had to accept that I needed surgery and go through the recovery process. I acknowledged the need to wait and see what would happen next, and, no pun intended, I was still alive, so I had many other non-scooter accident thoughts to consider.

In essence, I experienced pain without suffering, leading to a successful recovery and an exceptional life thereafter. 

I share this not to boast, as truly happy people are not egoistic but rather altruistic. I want to convey that this high level of happiness is possible for me, you, and your loved ones, encouraging you to cultivate this high level of abundance in your personal life.

To do so, I invite you to explore this website, our books, and courses. Lastly, I welcome you to a 30-minute onboarding call where we can discuss your challenges and goals.

Stay happy!