Ovid said, "Be patient and tough; someday this pain will be useful to you."
I've been sharing this quote with many of my clients who seek to find meaning in their suffering. Often, their eyes will light up upon hearing it - that light bulb of how to grasp pain as a tool for learning through experience, rather than something that drags us into victimhood.
Others may not be quite ready for this quote. Their pain may be so raw and ever-present that it might even feel like toxic positivity. That's okay too. They need to be able to sit with their pain and accept it for what it is.
Eventually, with courage, we can ask ourselves: "What have I learned from this? Who has it made me? And how can I use it to continue transforming myself into who I want to be?"
With lessons gleaned from suffering, our lives can become so much richer and fascinating that if we'd never suffered at all.
