The root of all suffering is believing thoughts that don’t square with the truth and holding on for dear life.
Why do I hold onto beliefs that don’t serve me?
Because I’m convinced I need them.
If I believe shedding a belief will cause me pain, I will hold onto it through incredible stress.
Until the pain of holding the belief outweighs the risk of pain by shedding it.
The only people who can be expected to shed their beliefs are people with nothing to lose by shedding them: people for whom the belief itself is so painful any alternative will do.
This is what it means to hit “rock bottom” and it’s how I’ve come to shed many of the beliefs that have caused me suffering. It’s also why I can be patient with people who seem to be stuck believing thoughts that appear to hurt them.
Many people will never suffer enough to question their stressful beliefs. And good for them. They’re okay.
Others will run out of capacity for denial and then they’ll free themselves from their stressful, unconfirmable beliefs. Or not. And that’s the way of it.
Everything happens as it should. Everything happens on time.
Everything that happens is a gift.