{"id":4690,"date":"2016-01-25T12:00:52","date_gmt":"2016-01-25T17:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/?p=4690"},"modified":"2016-01-24T22:01:16","modified_gmt":"2016-01-25T03:01:16","slug":"find-your-way-out-of-the-prison-of-dark-thoughts-and-feelings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2016\/01\/find-your-way-out-of-the-prison-of-dark-thoughts-and-feelings.html","title":{"rendered":"Find Your Way Out of the Prison of Dark Thoughts and Feelings"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>If there could be only one idea &#8212; a lamp whose light could show the aspirant of real life the way out of the prison of dark thoughts and punishing feelings &#8212; it would surely be this: your true self doesn\u2019t win in life by overpowering problems but by revealing they never really existed as you once believed they did.<\/p>\n<p>Truths such as this can be difficult to accept. Tell some people the basis of their present mental or emotional pain is a negative byproduct of a mind trapped in an illusion and, as a rule, their response is to cling all the more tightly to their suffering. With few exceptions, the justification of their pain is as follows: given what they have had to endure, there is no alternative but this, their pain.<\/p>\n<p>No one is saying to deny this pain or to otherwise pretend it\u2019s not there. Yes, the feeling of any pain is real, but here\u2019s what we must come to see if we would set ourselves free: all the excuses we\u2019re handed\u2014by ourselves\u2014for why we must continue to hurt ourselves are like flies that travel with trash. The only purpose they serve is to make something worthless seem valuable; garbage is garbage, no matter how it comes wrapped!<\/p>\n<p>Consider closely the twin truths in the following summary. Within them rests the understanding\u2014and the power\u2014you need to start throwing useless suffering out the door:<\/p>\n<p>The justification of any negative state serves one end only: the protection and the preservation of the nature responsible for its manifestation.<\/p>\n<p>Any part of our nature that finds good reason to justify our pain is the source of that pain it justifies.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.yourimmortalself.com\/special\/beliefnet\">www.YourImmortalSelf.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If there could be only one idea &#8212; a lamp whose light could show the aspirant of real life the way out of the prison of dark thoughts and punishing feelings &#8212; it would surely be this: your true self doesn\u2019t win in life by overpowering problems but by revealing they never really existed as&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":232,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[580,8],"tags":[650,184,2487,2486,2485,296,805],"class_list":["post-4690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dark-thoughts-2","category-negative-states","tag-emotional-pain","tag-justification","tag-mental-pain","tag-overpowering-problems","tag-punishing-feelings","tag-suffering","tag-useless-suffering"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Find Your Way Out of the Prison of Dark Thoughts and Feelings - Letting Go with Guy Finley<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2016\/01\/find-your-way-out-of-the-prison-of-dark-thoughts-and-feelings.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Find Your Way Out of the Prison of Dark Thoughts and Feelings - Letting Go with Guy Finley\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"If there could be only one idea &#8212; a lamp whose light could show the aspirant of real life the way out of the prison of dark thoughts and punishing feelings &#8212; it would surely be this: your true self doesn\u2019t win in life by overpowering problems but by revealing they never really existed as&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2016\/01\/find-your-way-out-of-the-prison-of-dark-thoughts-and-feelings.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Letting Go with Guy Finley\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Guy-Finley-260924340633\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-01-25T17:00:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-01-25T03:01:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Guy Finley\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@guy_finley\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Find Your Way Out of the Prison of Dark Thoughts and Feelings - Letting Go with Guy Finley","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2016\/01\/find-your-way-out-of-the-prison-of-dark-thoughts-and-feelings.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Find Your Way Out of the Prison of Dark Thoughts and Feelings - Letting Go with Guy Finley","og_description":"If there could be only one idea &#8212; a lamp whose light could show the aspirant of real life the way out of the prison of dark thoughts and punishing feelings &#8212; it would surely be this: your true self doesn\u2019t win in life by overpowering problems but by revealing they never really existed as&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2016\/01\/find-your-way-out-of-the-prison-of-dark-thoughts-and-feelings.html","og_site_name":"Letting Go with Guy Finley","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Guy-Finley-260924340633\/","article_published_time":"2016-01-25T17:00:52+00:00","article_modified_time":"2016-01-25T03:01:16+00:00","author":"Guy Finley","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@guy_finley","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2016\/01\/find-your-way-out-of-the-prison-of-dark-thoughts-and-feelings.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2016\/01\/find-your-way-out-of-the-prison-of-dark-thoughts-and-feelings.html","name":"Find Your Way Out of the Prison of Dark Thoughts and Feelings - Letting Go with Guy Finley","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/#website"},"datePublished":"2016-01-25T17:00:52+00:00","dateModified":"2016-01-25T03:01:16+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/#\/schema\/person\/1e80afed42f91bae3eb4ca59666c1d16"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2016\/01\/find-your-way-out-of-the-prison-of-dark-thoughts-and-feelings.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2016\/01\/find-your-way-out-of-the-prison-of-dark-thoughts-and-feelings.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2016\/01\/find-your-way-out-of-the-prison-of-dark-thoughts-and-feelings.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Find Your Way Out of the Prison of Dark Thoughts and Feelings"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/","name":"Letting Go with Guy Finley","description":"Holistic, Mental Health and Emotional Wellness","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/#\/schema\/person\/1e80afed42f91bae3eb4ca59666c1d16","name":"Guy Finley","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/308\/3082f4cd4990377da62358c5c69fd4e1x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/308\/3082f4cd4990377da62358c5c69fd4e1x96.jpg","caption":"Guy Finley"},"description":"Bestselling \"Letting Go\" author Guy Finley's encouraging and accessible message is one of the true bright lights in our world today. His ideas cut straight to the heart of our most important personal and social issues - relationships, success, addiction, stress, peace, happiness, freedom - and lead the way to a higher life. Finley is the Founder and Director of Life of Learning Foundation, a nonprofit Center for Spiritual Discovery. He is the acclaimed author of \"The Secret of Letting Go\" and more than 45 other books and audio programs that have sold over two million copies in 26 languages worldwide. His work is widely endorsed by doctors, business professionals, celebrities, and religious leaders of all denominations. Through Life of Learning Foundation, Guy has presented over 5,000 unique self-realization seminars to thousands of grateful students throughout North America and Europe over the past 20 years and has been a guest on over 700 television and radio shows, including national appearances on ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, and NPR. The Foundation's popular Key Lesson e-mails featuring inspirational quotes by Guy are read each week by a hundred thousand subscribers in 142 countries. Guy speaks four times each week on inner-life principles at Life of Learning Foundation's home in Merlin, Oregon. These meetings are ongoing and open to the public. For more information about Life of Learning Foundation, Guy Finley, and their life-changing messages, visit guyfinley.org. \"Guy Finley is...one of the leading experts at the forefront of human potential.\" -Nightingale Conant \"Guy Finley has helped millions live fuller, more peaceable lives.\" -Barnes and Noble","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.guyfinley.org","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Guy-Finley-260924340633\/","https:\/\/x.com\/guy_finley"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/author\/gfinley"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/232"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4690"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4690\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4692,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4690\/revisions\/4692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}