ANSWERS: 20
  • I always try and take the good with the bad. I don't think that I am bitter, or that anything has caused me to be that way. I always try and gain strength and insight from painful experiences, it may not be easy at first, but being bitter requires too much energy.
  • In many ways, both. I can honestly say that I've become better and worse.
  • It has embittered and weakened me to a point of wondering if I can bounce back from it.
  • I try to learn from my experiences... I may be embittered or weakened for a short time, but soon I find I understand the situation. Learning, will season and strengthen you, as the next time the situation occurs, you know how to handle it to NOT be near as, if at all, embittered and weakened.
  • I think I have adopted some sound ways of dealing with painful life experiences. I learned to not try to change what can't be changed. I learned to accept things that are inevitable and I try to take time out for myself to stop and smell the roses.
  • I am not embittered or weakened in any way but I don't think I'm seasoned or strengthened. However I have endured and that alone has taught me that somewhere I have strength in there ready to be used. I don't know where it comes from and I am very happy it's there. So I can just be thankful I learn and take small satisfaction that I can survive in one piece, even though I may be the walking wounded.
  • A little of both, actually. At times, I feel jaded, bitter, and pessimistic about certain aspects of life. Other times, I feel that I cannot have an outlook of the future that is based on bad experiences in the past, I have to be optimistic and strong. Either way, I feel like with every bad experience, I approach the next chapter with more knowledge, self-awareness, and objectivity (when needed).
  • During the pain I am weakened, but once the pain begins to dull and I realize that I will not die, I emerge stronger. I refuse to carry bitterness, an ugly emotion, in my heart.
  • While not always easy to see when in the midst of painful experiences, I have found them to be among my greatest teachers. The experience of sorrow leaves an appreciation of joy. The experience of heartache leaves an appreciation of relationship. The experience of pain leaves an appreciation of wellness. The experience of weakness leaves an appreciation of strength. The experience of upheaval leaves an appreciation of peace. The journey of life can be filled with beautiful lessons where you least expect them;)
  • I have often said that I owe my mother a debt of gratitude. She taught me how not to be with such clarity that I had no problem not abusing my own children. But the hell she put me through came within a fraction of destroying me for eternity. It wasn't until I had children of my own that the final pieces of healing took place, whenever I looked down at their beautiful little faces with their trusting eyes. How somebody can destroy that I will never understand. In the end it strengthened me, but it nearly destroyed me getting there.
  • Jodie44 Life's painful experiences have not left me bitter. However, in all honesty, there were many times in the past where I unknowingly allowed resentments to control me. In turn, the resentful feelings that were not dealt with lead me to make some wrong choices. When I became willing to let go, I began to gain the strength that I was looking for all along. I'm not special in that I think that I have arrived -- I know that there will be many more times of feeling weak and even inadequate to deal with life, but that's only human and acceptable.
  • I get stronger with each painful experience. I also remember and try not to get in those situations again/guard against them.
  • it is all part of life experience's and you learn and live and go on;)!!
  • Oh, embittered does not mean weakened. :P It's a little bit of both.
  • From a very young age i recognized an almost intense inner strength within me. Life bought me a whole lot of crap, that many times, truly defied me to go on. It was only when i took that inner strength and used it, that i was able to tell life not to play games with b*tches who can play them better. Life respects me now .. and i respect it :)
  • Embittered but strengthened. I'm no longer the 100% trusting soul I used to be, but I think that has strengthened me more than weakened me. It's certainly a smarter way to go about life in today's world.
  • My mother apologized because I was raised in a very strict household with rigorous discipline and expectations. My sister is six years younger than I am, so I was very much independent as she was being coddled as the baby. The rules were dramatically relaxed with her. I was bitter for a long time that my life was more difficult, and I was bitter anytime I felt the grass was greener on the other side of the fence. My mother recently acknowledged this contradiction to me, and I shocked myself with my own genuine reaction. Somewhere along the line, I found strength in my experience. I explained that I am the person I am, and my sister is the person she is. I would not trade places for anything in the world. Our pain is our pain. It is who we are. We can choose to not fight it, but instead, to grow from it. We can choose to make our love, our hopes, our overall demeanor... represent our pain in a way that pays tribute to what we have gone through. As we grow, evolve, learn, experience -- why choose to hold onto the negative? I choose to let go of anything that has been painful. Even if my human ego wants to hold onto it and live in that pain. I have to say, you are strong because you are you. You are aware. You are healthy. Life is nothing without pain. I believe I am nobody if I cannot learn from it. My boss evaluated me on Friday. He gave me a raise because he said my positive attitude was an asset to his business. I never thought of myself as being as positive as he said, but I can't imagine being weakened with negativity when we have the gift of instant positive energy, if we choose it.
  • I remember back in the late 1960s and early 1970s (showing I'm oooooold with that comment!) .. reading Gibran's book "The Prophet" (as so many of us did then) .. and this quotation still sitting in my brain: "Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding". -- I don't think it's possible to learn or grow or "become more fully human" without experiencing pain along the way. Nature of risk .. is potential hurt. But it's also the only way to experience deep joy. (Pain and joy as flip sides of same coin .. that we feel .. to the extent that we allow ourselves to be truly open). -- Have had many a personal challenge - as have others close to me - and guess I'm most vulnerable to "not" being ok when there's either too much at once or it's just flat out a high pain day (physically)! But overall? Each step forward is knowledge "it can be done". :) Tend to take things one thing at a time - and just try to do the best I can. All we can really ask of ourselves - or others - and turns out - that's really quite a lot! :)
  • Seansoned and strengthend with occasional weakness.
  • seasoned/strengthened me. if the past embitters or weakens someone i think it's because they refuse to learn from the mistakes and/or pain.

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