Is "suffering" a choice? · Spiritual Rebels

Is "suffering" a choice?

💬 A Story of two women:

Two women lose a parent within months of each other. Same hospital corridors. Same quiet room where machines once hummed. Same phone call no one is ever ready to receive.

👤"Anna" feels the grief and immediately adds a layer of torment to it. “I should have done more. I should have visited more. Why didn’t I say that one last thing?” Her mind rewinds years, searching for missed moments. Regret becomes her constant companion. She resists the finality of death, arguing internally with something that cannot be reversed. The loss is real. The love was real. But the story she keeps replaying turns grief into ongoing self-punishment.

The funeral lasts a day.

The inner trial lasts months.

👤"Miriam" also cries in the hospital parking lot. She feels the ache fully. But she does not turn it into self-condemnation. She allows the sadness without labeling it injustice. She speaks about her parent often, laughs at old memories, and lets tears come when they come.

The loss is still painful.

But she does not fight the fact that it happened.

Same death.

Different relationship to it.

💡Takeaway:

Pain is part of being human. Suffering grows when we argue with what is. Change the interpretation, and the same event can become either a prison or a teacher.

💬 Reflection:

🔹Where are you arguing with something that cannot be undone?

🔹Is your pain coming from the event… or from the meaning attached to it?

🔹What would change if you replaced judgment with acceptance?

🔹Have you ever faced something difficult that later strengthened you?

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