suffering is not a virtue

I hate to quote my therapist--it's so Woody Allen--but she did have an interesting point today. She suggested that I'm stuck in a belief system that says that you have to suffer to attain anything worthwhile.

I pondered that for a moment and then realized that it could be that I'm actually stuck in between TWO belief systems:

1. my old belief system, which is that you have to suffer, that suffering is a virtue (and when you suffer you can reward yourself with ice cream and self-pity, so really, it's quite a good scam)...
   
   ...and....
   
   
2. a newer belief system, that I've trained myself into (see also rabbit brain), which says, "once you start suffering, you should just give up right away, because otherwise you're just going to suffer more and more until you want to die, and then you'll have to give up anyway, so just give up now and save yourself the time and misery."

Wow, between "I must suffer" and "as soon as I suffer I must quit," and "I really want to do this, I don't want to quit," well, no wonder I've painted myself into a corner.

I went for a walk today saying to myself, "suffering is not a virtue," and "suffering doesn't help anyone." I was surprised at how hard that was to believe. Oh, come on, are you SURE about that? Positive? Because I think I deserve some ice cream right about now....