Sara S A couple of thoughts: i. it can be both: an invitation to move through the pattern in a way that shifts it, an invitation to relax more perhaps and see how we can give more to the situation and so receive more from it, perhaps new understandings.
ii. What your question suggests sounds like the edge where yoga unfolds, the meeting point between one and the other, and the reconciliation as emerges a way that dissolves the either/or and allows a broader perspective...
Thank you for your insight. When I see this pattern happening in others, do I say nothing and just let them go through it. I don't want to interfere, but the suffering is great. That's all she sees