Bypassing Suffering for Always-Positivity

For many there is an urge to stay positive, to keep our eyes focused on possibility, to ignore the current reality that might include pain and suffering. To not read the news. 

I believe in hope, love and possibility.

Yet if we ignore our own confusion, pain and suffering, if we ignore the legitimate suffering of others happening now, we disconnect from the part of ourselves that connects with humanity.

Hope isn’t devoid of the feeling of suffering and pain. Positivity does not deny the human struggle.

The ability to feel, fully feel, to take it in, to acknowledge everything, is the superpower that enables us to show up with the fullest capacity to empathise. To be present to the other’s experience.

Bypassing this step might make us feel good in the short term. And certainly, there are times we need to disconnect from the news feed to manage our own health.

Humanity is messy. Painful. Confusing. Confronting. 

And beautiful. 

It is the capacity to feel and think and be it all that makes us able to see a positive hopeful future.

Photo taken March 10th 2022