Suffering comes from how the mind interacts with pain. Because your mind is conditioned by past life events, when it encounters an experience it perceives as painful or unpleasant, there is immediate and direct suffering that is far greater than the actual discomfort of the situation. The increased discomfort happens in your mind, not in the actual experience. This means suffering has an internal cause, and you therefore have the ability to affect how much you suffer – you can dance with life and be a partner in how your life unfolds. With mindfulness of the cause of suffering, what is unpleasant simply remains unpleasant, even though it is not your preference.

Philip Moffitt, Dancing with Life