Chicken Noodle Soup: A Hip-Hop Guide to Suffering

How does chicken noodle soup and suffering relate? It doesn’t. But, in 2006 Young B dropped a hit called Chicken Noodle Soup. It’s a dance song. I heard it recently and one of her phrases resonated with me. “Let it rain, clear it out.” It was powerful. Life for us all is not a crystal stair in the words of Langston Hughes. Personally, the past couple of years in my life have been pervaded with loss. I feel like there is always going to be another obstacle. I didn’t sign up for the obstacle campaign. I’m not trying to be the greatest warrior. I have no desire. I am not one to subscribe to those silly sayings that God gives his hardest battles to his strongest soldiers. Nope! I don’t need it. Lol. Be it far from me! Suffering is not my thing, but I’ve come to realize that it is a part of life. Focusing on the negative experience attached to suffering will produce a negative effect. You can read more about that in one of my previous blogs about the Backwards Law. Additionally, when we think negatively, our focus shifts to fear. We are no longer present with ourselves. We operate out of chaos. Our brains are fogged, and we are reluctant to prioritize wellness. We embody survival mode. We are just trying to make it. For instance, I have a trainer and he always yells,” Try to get better, not just get through it.” It’s true, even though my knees want to collapse from the pressure and torture of squats and lunges. But ideally the point is to get better and progress, not stay the same or regress. This is what happens in life. Situations occur and we have the opportunity to get better, get through it or regress. Mark Manson stated is his book The Subtle Art of Not Giving a #@%! that “Any attempt to escape the negative, to avoid it or quash it or silence it, only backfires. The avoidance of suffering is a form of suffering, The avoidance of struggle is a struggle. The denial of failure is a failure. Pain is an extricable thread in the fabric of life, and to tear it out is not only impossible, but destructive: attempting to tear it out unravels everything else with it.” The circle of life includes both pain and pleasure. Through observation I see that most of us in the world think that life should be filled with abundance on all levels because that is what God “promised.” The other portion of us in the world soak in our sorrows of what is occurring and don’t think we have the capability to change it. Life is both and, not either or. I said all of this to say that my mantra, and I suggest that you adopt this as well, is to let it rain and clear it out. When a physical storm comes the only option is to let it pass. We don’t go outside and try to calm the trees and the winds from our homes. We don’t try to stop the rain. We simply let it pass. This is what we need to do in our lives. Allow ourselves to understand that storms come and the only thing we can do is let it pass. We don’t stop the rain; we manage the rain. We manage what we do in the rain. Such is the same for suffering. We can only manage our actions in suffering. This will determine our ability to grow or our ability to not grow. It boils down to mental toughness, and I have one big tip:

Never take it personal. As mentioned above, storms are inevitable. They are a part of our journey. They develop us and make us better. No matter what path of life you choose, there is going to be suffering attached to it. To be exempt from suffering is to be exempt from success. Life is hard. Choose your hard or in true Mark Manson fashion, choose your favorite flavored poop sandwich. You will eat it. If you do not, you will be stagnant. Have you ever run across an individual that thinks life should be rainbows and flowers? Sure, it would be nice to wake up a clap my hands and everything I wish for is within my reach, but is that realistic for the average individual? One more Mark Manson quote and I will close out. He states that when you care too much about everyone and everything, you will feel you’re perpetually entitled to be comfortable and happy at all times, that everything is supposed to be just exactly the way you want it to be. This is a sickness. And it will eat you alive. You will see every adversity as an injustice, every challenge as a failure, every inconvenience as a personal slight, every disagreement as a betrayal. You will be confined to your own petty, skull-sized hell, burning with entitlement and bluster, running circles around your very own personal feedback loop from hell, in constant motion, yet arriving nowhere.” Life will bring you suffering. Understand that life is not just picking on you. Everyone will suffer at some point or another. When it rains, stop imagining yourself as the cartoon that walks around with the cloud of rain over their head only while everyone else is super happy and exceeding. When it rains on you, it is raining on others just the same. Don’t take it personal. Let the rain come. Let the rain clear out. Continue to maneuver through life on your winning path, dealing with suffering with a positive attitude and understanding that it is inevitable and grandiose to personal development.

Or, I could be wrong about all of this. It's just my perspective.

Love Always,

Cici