I curate articles from around the web that present an interesting perspective or helpful information using technology to improve our wellbeing. Each of these articles were featured in my December 2019 newsletter. I send out an update twice a month along with some notes on my latest work. Sign up for my newsletter here.
DECEMBER
Living At The 'Interface Of Life And Death'
The difference between pain and suffering described by Cicley Saunders, a pioneer in palliative care, is suffering has a physical component, a psychological component, an emotional component, and a spiritual component.
Suffering affects how you see yourself. It affects your identity, according to BJ Miller, MD, who is co-author of A Beginners Guide to the End and is a hospice and palliative care doctor at UCSF Cancer Center. He also gave a moving TED Talk, What really matters at the end of life.
During an NPR Fresh Air podcast entitled Living At the Interface of Life and Death, Dr. Miller describes the difference between pain and suffering. He sees suffering as a wedge or a gap that opens up within you. The gap between the world you have and the world you want.
"Suffering by leaning into it, by working with it, by being changed by it, by learning from it. It’s a very humbling experience. It helps you, makes you see things a little differently,“ - Miller said during the Fresh Air podcast.
The interview reminded me of a quote from University of Massachusetts Medical Center’s Jon Kabat-Zinn and creator of Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR).
“Pain is inevitable; suffering is optional.”
I’ve had the opportunity to sit with Kabat-Zinn on several meditation retreats and this was a consistent theme. At each retreat, he would recite this Rumi poem from memory, The Guest House...
This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice.
meet them at the door laughing and invite them in.
Be grateful for whatever comes.
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.
While 2019 may have had its ups and downs and 2020 will invariably have them as well for you or your loved ones, finding meaning and a story of learning and growth is the path.
Thank you for a year of sharing with me the launch of this newsletter and the wellbeing that I worked to contribute to your life.
May your 2020 be filled with lots of love and growth.
Happy New Year!