Pain and Purpose

Life doesn’t battle you because you’re

weak, it battles you because you’re

strong. It knows that if it gives you

pain, you’ll realize your power.

The great Greek philosopher Aristotle claimed that everything happens for a reason. You can apply this when you consider that every experience in your life is designed to shape you and help you grow into the highest and mightiest version of yourself. This means that even a negative experience can be seen as an opportunity for growth, rather than a time for suffering.

(This doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t grieve or feel down when we do go through painful life experiences, and it’s important to give yourself time to heal after such events.) If you always play the victim when something goes wrong, life will always treat you like one. Don’t let your circumstances define your future.

Aristotle’s belief may make people think, ‘Yes! I feel that!’, give them hope or slightly annoy them. I understand why some might find the phrase irritating; when someone goes through a horrific experience it’s very difficult to see reason for it. All they feel is pain, and they may feel that by saying this, you’re demonstrating your ignorance about their situation.

However, the majority of us go through at least one period in our lives that we find very tough. So we can relate to someone’s low points to some extent, even if we don’t understand them exactly, because we have felt low ourselves.

Sometimes we just have to believe there’s a good reason behind it that will reveal itself to us when we’re ready to acknowledge it.

A schoolteacher of mine once told me a story about how his brother missed the last train from the town he was studying in to go home for the holiday season. When the brother missed the train, he was devastated and angry with himself.

However, later that evening he learned that train he was meant to have taken had tragically crashed and nearly all the passengers had died. Upon hearing this, he thanked God for saving him from what could have been his last breath, and he said, ‘Everything happens for a reason.’ I’m sure the friends and family of the deceased passengers wouldn’t have agreed, but from the brother’s perspective the phrase made perfect sense.

Just because you can’t see the

point behind a challenging time,

doesn’t mean there isn’t one.

Writing to reachout others and to inspire requires lots of hardwork and we must endure pain. There is a purpose to that pain. That’s why we continue to endure and sustain pain. This phrase gives you an empowering perspective so you can move forward with your life.

The past cannot be changed; only our perception of it can. By creating this shift in mindset, we start to trust that everything that happens to us also happens for us. As we begin to change our perception to a positive one, our life improves. If we don’t change it, we lose our joy and are consigned to low vibrational states.

 “The great art of life is sensation, to feel that we exist, even in pain.” – Lord Byron

“I'm willing to take any amount of pain to win.”- Lewis Hamilton