Yehonatan:
The main ingredient of teshuva is accepting upon oneself to live differently from now on.
Suffering cleanses a person and one should not wait for it to come from Above but take the opportunity to involve oneself in it. Fasting, consciously accepting humiliation, denying oneself some pleasure, are all ways of cleansing oneself through suffering.
Ichi Masmid was one of the legendary hasidim of two generations ago. He would daven all day and fabreng with the hasidim all night. Reb Zalman Moshe took it upon himself to chastise Ichi Masmid periodically lest he fall into the trap of pride regarding his high spiritual level. On those occasions Ichi would drink in the words of rebuke as if they were something he thirsted for. Ah so what is the suffering in that? Yes even though he drank the words in thirstily they remained suffering.
--Not to answer someone's insult--to even rejoice in it as a cleansing bath--this is the kind of thing that sounds good in the shiur but when the opportunity comes to fulfill it I usually don't remember the shiur....
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