How can I find meaning when I'm going through severe physical or emotional pain?

Patanjali understood that mastery over the mind doesn't mean eliminating difficulty—it means shifting your relationship to it. When pain becomes unbearable, the instinct is to resist or numb it. But resistance often deepens suffering. Instead, he'd invite you to ask: what is this teaching me? Not in a toxic-positivity way, but genuinely. Suffering has a weight; it can anchor us to what actually matters. A person losing their health often discovers what they took for granted. A grief can clarify who we are when everything else is stripped away. This isn't about *accepting* cruelty or injustice—it's about finding the thread of purpose that runs through the difficult season. Meaning isn't handed to you when things hurt. You locate it by paying attention to what calls you forward despite the pain, not because of it. That forward movement—even small—is where your mind begins to master the circumstance rather than be mastered by it.