This idea of seeing the blessing in the pain comes from Eastern thought but we have it too when we say, “There’s a silver lining in every cloud.” Ours is more practical and the other attitude is more spiritual, but they are in reality two sides of the same coin. A similar Catholic point of view is that there is good in suffering.

In the Eastern idea everyone and everything is our teachers. People and events which annoy us are our best teachers. We have put them in our lives in order to learn what we have to learn. According to this system of thought, when we get really annoyed, we should thank God and thank the person annoying us. We can make this situation into a positive challenge to ourselves and be glad that we have something to learn. Through unconditional love and compassion for ourselves and for the other we may reconcile ourselves to the other and understand that there is much blessing in any pain.

In Western psychology we do believe that often the things that bother us most are parts of our own personalities which we project onto others. Thus by learning to accept the negative aspects of others we learn to accept our own inner shadow. This is a Jungian term for the negative aspects of our unconscious mind that we make totally submerged below conscious perception. We become aware of our own shadow in our dreams, nightmares and most importantly in “them.”

In Freudian terms these are called repression, which means that memories that we cannot face we forget and shove deep down in our subconscious (the Freudian term for the unconscious). Then we displace these memories and project them onto others.

In both of the above analysis, Jungian and Freudian, we need to come to terms with what we dislike and those who anger us. Only by understanding that ‘ perception is projection’ may we come to terms with these disowned parts of ourselves and move towards reintegrating them …

See the blessings in your pain or suffering and Feel Good.

… the Divinity within me salutes the Divinity within you …

rjsilverfox