First, let me remind you of what is the first cause of our pain and suffering. Oddly enough, a believed “thought” causes our pain and suffering.

The truth is, it’s not our bank account, or Johnny leaving his dirty socks on the floor, or our weight that is causing our misery. It is the beliefs we think are true about our bank account, Johnny, and our weight that causes us so much pain.

The trouble is, it is too easy to assume that the pain and suffering is caused “out there” instead of by something invisible called a “thought”. But believe me the assumption is in error.

Yes, a believed thought is the true culprit of our pain and suffering but remember, you are the key to your continued pain and suffering because you and you alone are the one who has the choice and power to continue to believe that thought.

Don’t forget, you have another choice. You have the choice to question the thought to see if it is actually true or not. The moment you choose to question the truth of a thought that causes pain and suffering is the moment the thought starts to lose its grip on you and your pain and suffering will decrease.

Believe it or not, once we cannot believe a painful thought the pain and suffering lets go of us.
Ok, let me repeat that. Some thoughts, when we believe them cause pain and suffering. Yes, some thoughts cause you a minimal amount of pain and some cause a great deal of suffering.

But guess what? Even the tinniest bit of pain or suffering is a wakeup call from our guidance system. This wakeup call is our inner being letting us know that the thoughts we call true are not really true at all.

I think it was Byron Katie who said that pain is what it feels like to believe a thought that isn’t true.

Now, let me go over this again. When we experience emotional pain and suffering it means our guidance system is telling us we are believing a thought that isn’t true for us. In other words, our inner being is giving us a little nudge and reminding us that it is time to question the thoughts that seem true.

What do I mean by “question” our thoughts”? It means asking ourselves if the thought is really true or not.
But here’s the most important part of this process. You can’t “Mickey Mouse” around when you ask yourself if a thought is true or not. Questioning whether a thought is true is serious business because the answers can either prolong your pain and suffering or give rise to peacefulness, joyfulness, courageousness, and lovingness. So, when you question a thought do it with the intention of finding out the absolute truth.

So what does this all mean?

Let me cut to the chase but it may shock you so hold onto your seat. No thought is absolutely true. Yes, you heard that right. There isn’t any thought that you could believe that is absolutely true. So, when you believe a thought that is causing you a lot of grief and you really believe that it is true well….keep going, keep questioning with the intention of knowing the absolute truth.

Why do I want you to do this? Because it is the key to your peace, joy, happiness, love and courage. Most important than that is no matter how much you want that thought to be true…it’s not. When you realize it’s not true the pain and suffering stops.

Here's something to think about. We kill, punish, hate, suffer, condemn, and withdraw our love because the thoughts we believe compel us towards these type of actions. And when we can no longer believe the thoughts that require us to kill, punish, hate, suffer, condemn and withdraw our love…the killings, the punishments, the hating, and the suffering stops and the lovingness, courageousness, peacefulness, and joyfulness begins. Yes, I said it…this is when our life truly begins!
If you want the pain and suffering to stop then you must question your thoughts.

Listen, I am not playing around. If you do the simple process of questioning your thinking you will feel better. The sickness and pain will let go of you and you will awaken yourself to the joy, love, peace, and courage that is waiting to come out. It’s that simple.

Author's Bio: 

Sherri Hatch is the author of the Secret Power of Thought and you can visit her website at http://www.secretpowerofthought.com. Please join our social networking site for deliberate creators or anyone on the pursuit of happiness at http://www.successisgood.ning.com