Suffering

On April 19, 2004 Polly Young-Eisendrath, PhD. suggested the following questions when suffering:

• Can you stop in the middle of an argument with a spouse or child or parent and ask yourself -- just what am I feeling and thinking?

• Can you see how your feelings and thoughts and body sensations produce a kind of drive or charge that seems to push you impulsively forward?

• Can you stop mid-stream and begin to see your subjective experience as different from your actions so that you can feel what's going on subjectively while acting objectively in a manner that is more flexible?

• Can you remind yourself that you are the only person that you control (as poorly as you might do that)?

• Can you remember that every pain and humiliation and loss has brought with it many other experiences, and that all of these have continued to change and develop?

Contact information:
Polly Young-Eisendrath, Ph.D
195 Calais Road
Worcester, VT 05682
http://www.young-eisendrath.com