Poor Sylvester!
I remember as a kid watching as he suffered in each episode by chasing little Tweetie Bird, always ending up disappointed. Did you ever wonder why he didn’t just choose to accept that he’d never catch that particular bird and move on?
Why do we suffer? It’s something that unites us all as humans (and cartoon cats apparently).
What is the purpose of suffering?
Many times suffering begins with believing an illusion.
We believe in the illusion of separation. I am not with the one I love or the one I am meant to love. I am missing someone or something. I am worried a loved one will leave me.
What if there is no such thing as separation and we are all one? What if I chose to flow love to everyone and everything on the planet including myself, and there was no such thing as a lack of love? Even the illusion that when someone dies they are no longer here even though we can access them through memories and thoughts and feelings in the present moment. We can still flow love to them and receive it from them in our mind and spirit. In that sense there really isn’t separation in death, we can choose to see it as merely a shift in form. I’m not saying that death is easy to accept, far from it. But, we can choose how we frame it, which can soften our suffering even just a bit.
We believe in the illusion of not enough- I am not enough, I don’t have enough, I need someone or something to ‘complete me.’
Thanks a lot Jerry Maguire!
We can always acquire more things, meet new people, get another degree or position, complete another accomplishment. But making those things so important causes suffering. We are never done. As soon as we acquire one thing, it’s on to the next and the next. Like a never-ending treadmill. Each of us is already complete and whole as we are. And we never have to stop learning and growing.
When we look at the basic resources like oxygen and water, we rarely get worked up about not finding more in the way we do with concepts like money, lovers, status and possessions, and I would dare say your next breath is more important than anything else. Getting clear on needs vs. wants, appreciating the things we have and noticing that we are thriving even if we live at a very basic level if we have food, oxygen, water, some sort of basic shelter, warmth, enough of our organs functioning properly. It may be far from our ideal situation, but it still counts as thriving.
The illusion of lack keeps us stuck on suffering. We imagine that there is a lack of love, resources, recognition, intelligence. We imagine that we don’t belong or that we aren’t attractive enough. We always have access to love because we can love ourselves and the universe is constantly flowing love to us. We can appreciate ourselves, our own beauty, our own gifts and look for people who appreciate us, even if we have to create a whole new tribe.
Many of us experience the illusion of non-safety. Our brain rings the alarm constantly that I am not safe or secure in some way- financially, physically, socially. We believe- I’ll be judged, criticized, I am not accepted or acceptable. Don’t get me wrong, actual danger does exist. If you are in actual danger. For instance, if the building you are in is on fire, please stop reading immediately and get to safety at once. But, I probably didn’t have to tell you that. We often feel unsafe even though we are relatively safe, especially compared to the way we lived 100 or 1000 years ago. In the “dingo ate my baby” times. But we create imagined scenarios in our heads of how we aren’t safe all the time.
Take public speaking for instance. 75% of us, including your’s truly, are afraid of it. What if when you got up on stage to speak, people thought you were amazing instead of the fill-in-the-blank way you always believe they will think about you? Think of ways that the opposite of what you believe to be true is true. Think of ways you are safe, you are loved, ways you do belong. Build evidence for the opposite side of your case until your brain believes that new story above your conditioned story.
Your brain is a liar.
But luckily it is also quite gullible, it can be trained to relax. It can be stubborn though, just like my dog Kojak, so you must keep at it.
Challenge your beliefs. Question your stories.
We are generally called to awaken when our suffering hits a certain threshold or critical mass.
The question is…
Have you suffered enough?
I invite you to try letting go, even just for this moment. Take a deep breath, and just be. Try on being totally present, at ease and surrendered. Can you notice how it feels a whole hell of a lot better than constantly suffering?
Just ask Sylvester.
For more guidance on how to end suffering, book a free Discovery Call with me today!