There is a reason people stay in pain longer than they should.
The unknown is more frightening than the known, even when the known is hurting them. Better the devil you know, says the old line.
Familiar suffering has shape. You can predict it. You can plan around it. You know what tomorrow looks like.
The other side has no shape. You cannot picture it yet. You have not lived there. Your mind cannot rehearse the version of you who is on the other side.
So you stay.
You stay because the imagined unknown looms larger than the actual present.
A few weeks ago I asked you all a simple Friday question, the known or the new, and the answers were wonderfully honest. This is the teaching underneath that question.
The fear of the unknown is monkey mind filling the fog with monsters, because fog is all it has to work with. When you face the fear head on, it dissolves into nothing. What you were carrying turns out to weigh less than the carrying did.
And this is the perfect month for it. August is a 9 month, the month of endings honoured and decks cleared.
So look at what you are holding right now.
Is it because you want it, or because the unknown frightens you more?
Please share your thoughts.