The End To Suffering Is In-sight

A friend of mine said to me the other day, "the end to suffering is in sight", and I asked him to clarify what he meant.  He told me that the end of suffering was coming in the future and that he knew it was coming.  I then asked how he knew?  I was told that he was not quite sure but he had a very strong sense within him that something was changing in the world and that he could feel a new beginning coming.

So of course, me being a counselor, I had to dig deeper because the original statement had more than one meaning, and I wanted him to fully understand it.  I asked if he could explain the feeling to me so I could better understand exactly how he 'knows' that the end of suffering is in sight.  He told me that he had a strong feeling during a meditation session that made him believe fully that there was an end to all of the suffering in the world.

I replied with an 'ah, so you found the answer within'.  He agreed that was the only place the answer could have come from at that time because he was sitting quietly with no outside distractions.  I asked him who came up with the answer and the original statement; he replied that he did because it could have come from nowhere else.

I explained to him that if he found the answer within then he must be very insightful.  It took a couple of minutes for the realization of this statement to hit home.  Once I saw this answer was realized by my friend, I explained that he had found something very profound within himself, and he had not quite connected the dots yet.

That is where much of my collected insight comes from, I have learned to ask the right questions while helping clients and friends critically think their way through their own thought processes.  He had discovered that 'The End Of Suffering Is Insight'.  This is already well known in much of the philosophical world, but he had discovered it for himself, which tells us there are more answers within than we truly know.

Do you want to end your suffering?  I know I do, and I get closer each day.  The more I look within, the more I remind myself that we cause all of our own suffering, and therefore we must look within ourselves to find the answers we seek.  Yes, outside forces can cause pain and discontent, but the suffering is something we create for ourselves, and our ego loves to blame everything outside of our being so that we cannot see the true answers, that we cause it for ourselves.

End your suffering through self-reflection and insight, it is the only way.  Nobody else can do it for you!  

If you are looking for strategies and tools to help you look within yourself, don't hesitate to message me.  I created New Age Learning Solutions to teach people how to get to know themselves better, and how to build upon your inner strengths, rather than trying to put 'bandaids' on your symptoms.  Want to know what is causing your unhappiness and anxiety?  The answers are within you and you just may need some help to find them.

Once your 'true self' or 'spirit' has suffered enough, it will start screaming to be released.  Learn how to answer yourself and become who you truly are.  "The End To Suffering Is Insight", so take a good look within yourself, and if you find anything but peace, dig deeper!  Keep looking until you find the answers you seek!

Be Careful What You Learn

I will continually revert back to discussing mental health issues because this is the biggest area of mis-information and bad advice in society right now.  If you want to learn about your own mental health issues, then do the research and decipher the difference between good and bad information.

Anyone can learn ways to improve their state of being, but one must want to first.  I am just asking that you be careful of the information you find, and use your critical thinking skills to ensure that the words you find, carry the message that you need.

What set me off today was reading replies on Facebook to a question someone had asked about depression.  The question was "how do we deal with depression?", and it was posted in an Eckhart Tolle group that I am a member of.  The question was posed to the large group and within an hour there were over 30 comments on it, each one of them trying to impose their wisdom on the poser of the question.

As I read through them I could feel my frustration growing.  Most of the answers quite obviously come from people who have never suffered depression in their lives, but they certainly think that because they have read Eckhart's books, that they are now experts in that area.  I can tell you as someone has dealt with long term depression, but also has a degree in mental health studies, that many of the comments I read from seemingly knowledgeable people were actually the opposite of helpful.

Be careful who you take advice from in regards to mental health issues, and use your own wisdom and experience to ensure the advice you are receiving is worth processing.  I could simply have told the person to use coping mechanisms and to get help, but anyone who has actually lived with depression will tell you that if it were as easy as some helpful words, they would have crawled out of the pit of desolation a long time ago.

True learning does not really begin until we start reflecting on the information we receive and own it.  I would first ask the person why they feel depressed.  Often the answer from clients is 'I don't know', but I will continue to ask that question until it is answered.  This forces the person to self reflect upon their own problems with their own critical thinking skills and logical processors.

How do you deal with depression?; Find out why you are depressed first, and this answer can only be found within ourselves.  Once the problem has been identified, explore the reasons why you are feeling this way and which thoughts are coming to the surface when you are feeling this way. You won't get answers until you start asking questions.

If you want to learn anything at all, you truly have to want to first.  If you have determined that you really do want to learn something, then follow the trail of questions that arise, and answer them.  Some will be able to be answered by asking your true and inner self, while others you may need help for.  You may need a therapist or counselor to help you find the right questions, or if you are already good at searching information on the internet, then start searching.

Don't wait for someone else to teach you what you need to know, or wait for someone to come along to save you.  Take control of your own life and mind and start teaching yourself the things you want to know.

I am happy to provide sites and information that I have already found to be credible, especially for mental health issues.  If you are researching along your path and need a little help to make sure you are going the right way, or if the information is something that applies to you, send me and email or pose a question in the comments below.

Learning is a process that gives us the ability to learn anything we put our minds to.  You can begin repairing your own issues or take on something new and exciting, all you have to do is get started.

Use the image at the top to better understand what critical thinking is and to use the correct skills of analysis, synthesis and evaluation to look deeper and find the words that work for you and your learning abilities.