Being Thankful For Suffering

What are you thankful for today?

This morning I started journaling about gratitude. It’s where I like to start because it always brings joy and peace to focus on what I am thankful for.

Today, I am thankful for suffering.

What?! Yes, I know. Keep on reading.

But truly, I am.

You know why? Because it’s through all of the times I felt suffering that I have slowly found my true self. Peeling back all of the layers that are not actually me. One experience after another.

It’s where I have found:

Strength.

Resilience.

Compassion.

Empathy.

Forgiveness.

Love.

Peace.

Joy.

On the other side of the suffering, I have always been able to see how I grew through it. What I learned through the experience. It hasn’t always been immediate, but I always am able to see it eventually. And I always experienced happiness once again.

The thing that has helped me the most in the times when I feel suffering, is being present with it. Fully FEELING all the emotions that go along with it. Allowing them to come and flow through me. Not judging any of them. Not suppressing any of them. Not holding on to them. It is then that I am able to release them. And I now can also find the peace in the moments of suffering as well.

I choose to slow down and be present.

To fully let myself feel.
All of life.
The flow of the ups and the downs.
The happiness and the sadness.
Not hanging on to anything.

That’s how I feel fully alive to surrender.