What does it mean to have inner strength?
This is a question that I ask myself repeatedly. What does it mean to rise against the odds, to push through, to be a strong human? I think it very well comes down to an ‘inner faith.’ This is the belief, formed through past experiences, that you can and will push through and succeed at the task at hand.
More specifically, I am interested in how we can face chronic pain. For everyone pain is a constant in our lives, which may ebb and flow but never cease, such as chronic illness. As a Type One Diabetic, I know this experience first-hand. All diabetics must rise up against challenges daily, as many of us humans do. Indeed, not every day is easy, yet our persistence proves our ability to adapt and overcome. For all of us who fight daily, this quote from Seneca will resonate deeply, ‘Sometimes, even to live is courageous.’ Even the ability to stand straight and face what we must face and carry on is a victory in itself. Small steps truly matter.
It is from these small steps and daily battles that we become stronger. Adversity, for better or worse, is no longer some far-off entity to avoid or delay but an active part of our lives. For us, adversity is almost like a family member; we see them daily. Yet we must actively endure and overcome them; our lives depend on them. Through these daily victories, we prove to ourselves that we have done it once; so certainly, we can do it again. That is what strength is; deep daily cultivation of our character; and from that comes our faith.
Our character is much like clay, we are shaped by the challenges we face, stress we endure, and the choices we make. As we endure throughout life, our character hardens and becomes stronger. It is through this character that we can begin to trust during our most challenging times and off days. We know from experience that we possess the necessary tools and expertise to complete the task. If every day is a battle, then we are well-trained to face further adversity. We may not like facing more adversity; no one does. Nonetheless, we are practically built to endure it and emerge on the other side as victors.
It is through these daily battles that our character is forged, tested, and revised. For much of our lives, our character has prevailed in various forms. You should know that no matter how impossible something feels or how hard something is, you can put your utmost faith in yourself to get the job done. Because up until now, you have lived a life of victories, you have reached the other side. Why would this change? How can we know about our battles?
The aware side of inner strength.
Equally crucial to the development of strength is cultivating one’s awareness. This is what allows us to actually do something conscious with the pain and not just suffer unconsciously.
When we are in this battle for life, we face both covert and overt challenges. Not only do we struggle with our blood sugar day-to-day, but with more subtler and deeper problems such as the burden of chronic illness in the first place. These are the wounds that we must be extra aware of and do the work to bring them to consciousness. If we don’t, these past wounds will unconsciously rise up and affect us.
Awareness of such wounds requires creating a non-judgmental space for them to be acknowledged and felt. This is where the aware side of strength exists, in the form of weathering such emotional storms. Pema Chödrön tells us, ‘You are the sky; everything else is just the weather.’ Our consciousness is as expansive as the sky, and our strength is as powerful as the hues the sky takes on. Within this sky, we must become aware of the transient nature of whatever comes our way. Be it emotions, thoughts, dreams, failures, etc. Strength comes from recognising this facet and freeing ourselves from the constraints of eternity. In this final section, I invite you to redefine what constitutes a victory in light of all we have discussed.
What is a victory?
In light of all we have learnt today, we should consider victories in a different light, not winning in a dramatic way or decimating the enemy. Sometimes victory is the ability to stay aware in the present moment. It is only through awareness in our testing that we can notice and appreciate the grit of our character, refining and reinforcing it as needed. Seneca tells us, ‘No man is more unhappy than he who never faces adversity. For he is never permitted to prove himself.’ Adversity is how we harden our clay character, it is how we grow, how we learn, and how we become.
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