Freedom from your suffering is possible

People do not come to my office because of physical or emotional pain- they come see me because they are suffering.

I like that old saying ‘pain is inevitable, suffering is optional’. There is a big difference between authentic emotion and human suffering. Suffering is a fact of the human condition. However, it is not required. When we are aware, awake, to the nature and causes of suffering, we can end our suffering, at least for the present moment.

Our mental stories about our life create our suffering. It isn’t our life or our circumstances that does it- it is our belief system, our personal stories.

The deeper we believe a story in our mind the harder it is to awaken from that story. This is why the childhood belief system is so important to examine. We believe our childhood belief system so strongly that we do not even see at as a belief system- we usually see it as ‘reality’.

Freedom from suffering means dropping our belief systems and being awake just to what really is going on right this moment. But to drop the beliefs we usually have to see them first.

Suffering Is Optional: Three Keys to Freedom and Joy is a book Cheri HHuber wrote in which she talked about the three keys to freedom from suffering. Here they are in no particular order. All three are critical.

1. Pay attention to everything.
2. Don’t believe anything.
3. Don’t take anything personally.

A tall order, yes? I have found it to be worth the effort.