Today's writing is, "Ending Mental Suffering":
Most people accept mental suffering like it's a fact of life, like it's completely unavoidable. People believe that suffering is something that happens to them, they believe it's this outside thing and they're a victim. That's all an illusion though, your own suffering is something you do have the power to change.
When I say suffering here, please understand that I'm talking about mental suffering, and not physical pain. Physical pain is something that's going to happen in your life, it's unavoidable. Furthermore, in most cases it's not such a negative thing. It's a great indicator that there's a problem with your physical body. If you stick your hand in boiling water, it's good to feel pain because then you'll pull your hand out and prevent any further harm. In this case the pain is very helpful.
Mental suffering can make physical pain ten times as bad. The anticipation of pain, the fear of pain, and trying to avoid pain can create enormous mental suffering even when no physical pain is present. Physical pain doesn't have to create mental suffering, and you have a direct example of that in the people labelled "masochists". These are people who derive pleasure from pain, not something I recommend, but it goes to show that mental suffering doesn't have to be a reaction to pain.
Link to the full version: http://soundofheart.org/galacticfreepress/content/ending-mental-suffering
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Link to today's GFP newsletter: http://soundofheart.org/galacticfreepress/content/gfp-newsletter-4242014
