I absolutely agree, pain is passing, suffering is psychological, however the grey area is when the pain period or the type of pain reaches the point that it starts to effect the overall picture so that begins to border on suffering, if the bonk of the ball to his head during a game takes him out of the game and possibly more games as a result that starts to effect the overall picture beyond the simple pain period, so that if 1 trade doesn’t work out then that’s pain that will blow over, but if there is a consistent loss in someone’s trading then there is something wrong with the bigger picture that can border on suffering. The only real solution to suffering is to re-evaluate the bigger picture, is my target in trading realistic, am I going about it correctly, should I change the way I trade etc … once these have been solved, then someone can go back to just plain old pain !!!

PS I’ve never heard of a parent discussing with their kids the difference pain and suffering, usually parents just teach it to them straight … “Son ! I will now teach you the real difference between pain and suffering !!!!” AAAAAARGGGH !!!!!!!

I can’t speak for other, obviously, but I can certainly think of times when by trying to deny my grief I merely prolonged it and it wasn’t until I gave myself permission to feel what I needed to feel was I able to get past it.

So there is a lot to be said for the ability to allow for the pain without assigning our entire existence to it.

Like Jeremy, I totally agree, there is a difference. Pain is sometimes unavoidable but suffering we have a choice. We are ‘response-able’, we get to choose how we experience the pain. Sure, every now and then it can be useful to wallow and marvel at our undisciplinedness, but only for short periods of time, sometimes around the 1st Fridays of the month. ;p

That said, I’m not sure we *always* have a choice. For example, I haven’t thought it through in depth and this just came to me but something along the lines of the Kübler-Ross 5 stage model of grieving but applied to trading… We are human beings *and* human ‘doings’ after all.

Ultimately, I believe that nothing has any meaning except the meaning we give it. Ed Seykota said it best: in the end, “everyone gets what they want from the markets”. Choose wisely…

however, i find that many of the times i seem to ‘enjoy’ beating myself up, ie going over and over again in my mind about how painful it is, and thereby developing a ‘pity-party’ mind over such pain/ suffering.

i know that i should move on, but its seems its a case of ‘the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak’ type scenario…

but am trying more and more to consciously form better habits, and move on..
thanks for the thoughts on pain and suffering