What needless pain do we bear?

I had a beautiful conversation about discomfort a while ago with a friend. She grew up in China, was schooled in Singapore and the US, and has worked for a bit somewhere in Africa.

That broad experience made her observations about discomfort personal. Both from her lived experience and from observing those she loves.

We process things based on our tolerance for discomfort. Some cultures are more comfortable sitting with discomfort, staring it in the eye, having the though but kind conversations, and finding their paths through it. Others aren’t and will rather throw bricks at anything masked in discomfort.

Change the word ‘culture’ in the previous paragraph to ‘people’, and see if anyone comes to mind.

How much of the discomfort we feel in our lives is self-imposed? How much of it isn’t based on objective reality?

I think those are important question to answer for oneself.

The needless pain we bear is often the heaviest. Especially when we can choose differently.