Pain And Suffering

Capital Reef National Park in Torrey Utah. Planning our trip this spring.

Pain And Suffering

Everyone goes through hard times. We all know that feeling, someone close to you has died, or a relationships break up. No matter what happens, there are bound to be times when we feel pain and suffering in life. The difference between pain and suffering, though, is that with pain, we feel it immediately, sometimes intensely and then it naturally passes through us. Not so with suffering. When we suffer, we hold onto our pain for longer than necessary. We hold onto it because in a weird sort of way we enjoy the pain, because we’re lost in it, or even because we think we need it. Suffering is the decision to keep eating the chocolate, even when we feel sick. Or to hold onto the jealousy we feel in our chests, instead of talking about the issue with our partner. It’s ignoring our true selves. You already feel bad. Worrying on top of this with the thought about how someone else might see you is a sure-fire way of holding onto that feeling for a lot longer than you need to. Bear in mind that we all do this at some point in time. Some people set about organizing things at a fast pace, some just need to watch TV and snack all day long. Whatever it is you need to do, let yourself do it. And don’t torture yourself for it, either. Just relax! If you find yourself tensed up and in pain, there is nowhere for it to go. And there is also no way of you knowing what to do next. If you’re tensed up and stressed out, you can’t think clearly. So just relax, relaxing doesn’t mean you can change the situation that brought you pain. But at least you have the choice to change what’s going on for you right now.Life will always bring us pain, but we get to choose the type of pain we experience. Letting go of suffering means we can move through pain and maybe even one day feel something different. But for now, allowing yourself to feel the pain is enough. Next don't forget to love always, forgive quickly and smile along the way.

God Bless
Jason

I Have Not Failed

Wilson Peak, 14,023 Ft. Picture taken from above Telluride Colorado on Saturday. This peak is the peak seen on the Coors Beer Can and used in most of their advertising.

Every cloud has a silver lining. Think of any dark situation that you have endured in life, and you’ll find that there’s a hidden good behind every bad that happens. We may not like it, but failure sometimes is nothing more than a stepping stone to a path that leads to our dreams. “I have not failed. I have just found 10,000 ways that won’t work”. These were the famous words uttered by Thomas A Edison, when he finally made a light bulb, after “failing” to do so 10,000 times. Imagine 10,000 failures! Had he given up after five attempts or 10 or a 100 – we still may not have had the light bulb. So what you need to remember, what we all need to remember, is to stay positive even when faced with rejection or failure. Failing at something doesn’t mean that we cannot achieve success ahead.  It means that more work needs to be done, more attempts need to be made. The only way to fail is to give up. You’ll often hear successful people say that it’s better than to have tried and failed than to have never tried at all. There’s no success without a list of failures behind it. When you try your hand at something for the first time, you’re not likely to succeed at it. Remember the first time you played ball? Or tried roller skating? Chances are that you sucked at it. Life’s like that, you fail only when you give up. Try, try again. And even then if you don’t make it, try some more! There’s simply no such thing as failure. Not achieving something means you learn, and then try it all over again till you finally do. I have not failed just fallen short a few times. Don't forget to love always, forgive quickly and smile along the way.

God Bless
Jason