Episode 178: Sadness Without Suffering

Psychology Has It Backwards

People sometimes assume that if they really "saw" the Principles, they would always be happy. The truth is, understanding the Principles that describe how we create experience does not lead to any particular emotional outcome; it simply leads us to accept the rollercoaster of life's ups and downs and the range of emotions we feel as they occur as natural and ever-changing. We do not need to think ourselves into reaction to our own states of mind and responses to life events. We don't need to "pretend" to be unaffected by negative events. We ride the waves without worrying about them. So, even when we are having negative feelings, we don't get frightened by them, or worried that they will never pass, or concerned that people will judge us. Life, as Sydney Banks told us, is "a contact sport." We're meant to take part and experience the thrills, the spills, the wins and the losses, the hurt and the joy as grateful participants in the experience of being a human being. It's not necessary to fight our feelings when we don't enjoy them; they will pass as life continues to unfold. Pain is pain; suffering is the way we are thinking about the pain.

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