Those who suffer stiffly and those who suffer flexibly

Nobody ages out of suffering. We’re never done dealing with bullshit.

Each of us will always have our own carnival of nonsense to deal with. Regardless of what we feel we deserve, or what we believe we’ve earned the right not to deal with anymore, life will still find some way to hand us a pile of crap.

It’s as sure as the tides.

But there are those who suffer stiffly, and those who suffer flexibly.

Senge put it perfectly in his book about the fifth discipline:

We are neither victims of culprits, but human beings controlled by forces we have not yet learned how to perceive.

Our goal is learning how to get over that adolescent view about why something might be happening to us.

Look, shit happens to everybody. There is rarely a reason why. Dwelling on, running from, or trying to find a solution for the mystery is simply not a prudent use of our time.

We’re at fault if we continue to let ourselves be victimized by such experiences.

A healthier response is to pivot our internal question from a place of contraction and negativity to a place of expansion and abundance.

Why me? becomes, what’s next?

It’s the only path through these knots of suffering.

Instead of shaking our fists at the heavens, assuming we were done with this bullshit, we remind ourselves, oh right, we’ve seen this movie before, and here’s how we’re going to handle it.

Buddha may have been right when he said that life was suffering.

But if we don’t dismantle our sense of victimization around suffering, if we don’t transition from suffering stiffly to flexibly, then all the piles of shit are going to keep stacking up.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
How will you transform yourself into a person who responds to the signals and thus is less likely a victim?