“Resistance can be trained away. Once you realize this, it fundamentally changes your relationship to all forms of discomfort.”
- Shinzen Young, meditation teacher
“Suffering = Pain x Resistance” is a formula shared by meditation teacher and The Science of Enlightenment author Shinzen Young in a recent One You Feed podcast. Our relationship to physical, emotional and/or mental discomfort can change when we no longer fight with what arises, he asserts. In other words, by reducing our resistance, we can reduce our suffering. This doesn’t mean to accept injustices, as some things definitely need to be changed. However, our happiness level doesn’t have to rely on what’s happening—or not happening—in our lives.
“When you bring concentration, clarity and equanimity to an uncomfortable experience, it doesn’t stop hurting, but it does stop bothering,” Young says. As a research consultant who has collaborated with Harvard Medical School and Carnegie-Mellon University in the field of contemplative neuroscience, Young advocates for meditation and mindfulness practices to retrain the mind. The same practices that allow you to “experience big pain with little suffering can allow you to experience tiny pleasure with enormous fulfillment.”
“When you bring concentration, clarity and equanimity to an uncomfortable experience, it doesn’t stop hurting, but it does stop bothering,” Young says. As a research consultant who has collaborated with Harvard Medical School and Carnegie-Mellon University in the field of contemplative neuroscience, Young advocates for meditation and mindfulness practices to retrain the mind. The same practices that allow you to “experience big pain with little suffering can allow you to experience tiny pleasure with enormous fulfillment.”
What have you been resisting? How can you practice mindfulness or meditation to reduce suffering and boost fulfillment?
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