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In this podcast Joel and Antonia discuss pain vs suffering and unpack the difference.

In this podcast on pain vs suffering you’ll find:

  • This podcast will discuss the difference between pain and suffering.
  • Pain is inevitable and suffering is optional. You can stay with it or continue experiencing it.
  • The base root of pain is physical warning that there’s something damaging. Pleasure is a reward mechanism for doing something that the body believe is healthy
  • Pain is not always a bad thing. We experience something we assume is bad for our body.
  • The difference between pain and suffering is the narrative behind it.
  • When you over attach to your ego, it becomes righteously indignant.
  • The only thing you can do is to be the absolute version of yourself. You want to spend the majority of your time with people who has the same value as yours. But it’s near impossible for you to prevent meeting people who choose to suffer every day.
  • Being awesome is a great influence to others. When people see your progress and happiness, they will be inspired to make or initiate changes in their lives.

In this podcast Joel and Antonia discuss pain vs suffering and unpack the difference. #personalgrowth

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5 comments

  • cj
    • cj
    • December 26, 2023 at 6:36 pm

    I know this is old and maybe you aren’t checking comments but this really hit a nerve and I’m curious if your point of view on this has changed in the last 9 years.

    I hope you realize that telling people living in chronic pain that they can just be happy if they were a more awesome version of themselves. Literally the most traumatizing part of living in chronic pain is that we can’t be our best version of ourselves, because the pain prohibits activities and drains mental and emotional energy.

    Telling people to just suck it up and choose not to suffer is straight up cruel. It is gaslighting. It is dismissing. OMG the more you talk the more cruel you get. I really hope you have re-examined your POV.

    This entire podcast episode is incredibly dismissive and patient blaming. As someone who has been forced into a life of chronic pain by dismissive health care providers who forced me to spend over a year to find someone who took me seriously. Having to wait 18 months for treatment for my pain. Surgery reveled major disease and problems beyond what was even expected. There was far more damage than even the surgeon that diagnosed me expected. I would have had kidney damage had I not kept insisting something was wrong and kept looking for new health care providers. The whole time I was adopting meditations, seeing therapists, exercising, etc, etc. Everything I could do to manage my mental health around this issue. Regardless, it was an extremely traumatic experience and I did not create my own suffering. Siddhartha himself couldn’t have just sat back and not experienced emotional trauma from living in extreme pain and having the people you are dependent upon keep telling you it is normal.

    Over a year of dismissal resulted in the development of a chronic pain process or possibly there is still disease left causing problems. I cannot tell, but new pain is ongoing and worsening. Now I’ve been spending another 2 years post op to resolve the pain and figure out what is causing the pain and doctors are dismissing me again and I’m looking for surgeons 1000 miles away for diagnosis. I lost my job and was unemployed for 12 months because I couldn’t get health care providers to diagnose my issues so I couldn’t fill out requests for reasonable accommodations.

    To say that I am creating my own suffering by thinking I shouldn’t have to be in pain is just plain dismissive and patient blaming. If you look at different approaches to long term chronic pain coping strategies with chronic pain they all say that they really require actually knowing that the pain isn’t a threat.

    Also, the fact that my pain makes it very difficult to do my job and I have no way to explain to my employer why I may be less productive is distressing. Should I just choose to not worry that I may get fired again? Should I just choose to not worry that my financial future is being undermined by doctors who dismiss my symptoms?

    You want to stay away from people who are suffering from pain because you think they are choosing to suffer? Do you really not realize that living in constant pain dramatically reduces your ability to be your most awesome self? That is literally the problem. That I cannot be my awesome self because most of my energy goes to managing and coping with pain meaning I have nothing to give the people in my life. I do not control that my pain limits my ability to do my job. I can’t control that my pain is a constant reminder of medical trauma and gaslighting. My pain is a sign that something is wrong with my body and that currently have no medical provider to help me identify the problem.

    I would like to see an update on this topic where you actually discuss chronic pain with experts.

  • Joel Mark Witt
    • Joel Mark Witt
    • March 5, 2014 at 2:49 am

    Hey Lakshmi! Great to hear from you. This is a great idea for a podcast topic. You are right – we need to talk about this on a future show. Stay tuned.

  • Lakshmi
    • Lakshmi
    • March 5, 2014 at 1:37 am

    Greetings all the way from Bangalore, India.

    Awesome content Joel & Antonio. Keep up the good content.

    One topic that I would like to hear is about cognitive biases – how it trips us even when are aware of it, how to overcome it, what to do when we spot it in an intimate relationship ( especially when we are on the receiving end ).

    And if there is any co-relation with the types.

    Looking forward to hear from you guys :-)

  • Joel Mark Witt
    • Joel Mark Witt
    • February 8, 2014 at 10:56 pm

    Thanks Debra. Stay tuned for more episodes. Quick question: what would you like to hear more about in these podcasts?

  • Debra Townsend
    • Debra Townsend
    • February 6, 2014 at 9:40 pm

    Just wanted to say I was so relieved, revived, refreshed at hearing you talk about what i’m interested in which is personalities and growth. You are talking and speaking together so pleasantly and bouncing off each other. It’s what a relationship should be. I appreciate it. I have an unhealthy marriage. I am always trying to improve. Our “dance” like a middle school dance where one is having too much fun and the other is looking at them like “stop, what are you doing?”
    So, I am so ready to listen to more. I will connect with you on facebook. Thanks for the discussion: pain vs suffering.

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