Bubbles of Suffering: Accepting Life’s Reality to Harness a Full Life
Everyone suffers.
Some on a higher magnitude, some on less.
People worldwide suffer in one or more of the 5 Bubbles of Suffering.
It can be their own problem or that of someone their close to which brings about this suffering.
And no one can get rid of it. It is just a key part of the game of life we play in.
Somehow people do not seem to be given an understanding of some of the truths on this game of life.
- Self
- Health
- Money
- Relationships & Family
- Society
A big myth in the mindset of the many is that over time, the current problems will go away and they’ll be happy ever after.
They are constantly on the search for happiness based on a condition.
Once I have enough money, once I am healthy again, once the situation of the country gets good, etc.
Maybe you are facing a money problem right now in your life and think that once that is solved, you’re life is gonna be a breeze.
But, problems are going to be a constant in life.
The thing is that they may be of different magnitudes at different phases of life.
Maybe you’ve gone through the worst already, or the worse is yet to come.
So what can you do about it? You cannot really create a time machine that makes sure all the problems you’re going to face in the future get obliterated.
Rather, you have to accept that problems arising in life is normal & expected. And you have to prepare for the worst.
Everyone’s life is a mixture of What’s going good and What’s going bad.
And, the good news is that we are always choosing how we react to anything and everything that comes our way.
Most of us magnify the few problems that are currently present in our life and make it the theme of our emotions i.e. stress.
But even that person has something good going on in their life.
And, if you just take a moment to realize, you have a lot to be grateful for.
I once realized how grateful I am to have full body that is working normally when I met kids suffering from cerebral palsy.
I can guarantee there are at least 20 things you can be grateful for right now if you just list them out.
Thus, its about being grateful for the positive while accepting & solving everything in your control regarding the negative.
Its easier said than done.
And, this is why people indulge in pleasure whenever possible in order to forget about their problems & sorrows for the short-term.
Be it binge watching shows, drinking, smoking, etc.
Some of them may be harmless activities but some very harmful.
But the thing about getting habituated to pleasure is that your problems are still there. They haven’t gone away.
Furthermore, because of the quick dopamine rush we quickly get hooked to pleasure filled activities but there is still a sense of hopeless emptiness afterwards when you switch to reality.
Is that healthy?
This is why while you are tackling the problems you face in your life, you should mostly focus on actions that give you fulfillment.
The feeling of fulfillment beats the sensation of pleasure in the longer term providing you a deeper, valuable life.
For instance, the feeling of fulfillment I got after I completed a full marathon still beats 500 hours of time binge watching a bunch of movies & series.
Those pleasure filled activities are also allowed but focus at least 80% on fulfillment driven activities.
That’s pretty realistic.
Therefore, it is important to constantly reflect on the few right actions you need to take and removal of everything else i.e. inaction.
That inaction may do more good to your soul than action in the wrong things.
This has worked for me and I know it. But it must be practiced and reminded of because we human beings are sometimes really shitty beings.
We kind of know of parts of such insights yet we again go back to the actions in our default settings.
But, if self-actualization becomes the meaningful purpose in your life, it is worth remembering these insights & aligning your thoughts & actions accordingly.
My final remarks is thus that in actuality, it might be a better investment of time to learn to accept and solve suffering rather than having goals such as trying to find happiness all the time, which are not aligned with the natural workings of the world.
Deep Fulfillment, a type of happiness arises from solving problems. It is tough but going through that tough times is what creates good times.
To conclude, the point of this article is that there are certain truths to life we have to accept such as some harsh rules in a game.
Once we accept them & adapt to them, we can play the game to our fullest potential.
Among them, I’ll conclude with 10 truths I’ve come to accept in life.
