Suffering the Mind - thehealseekers.com

For the past eight months, I’ve been — as my partner put it — suffering my mind.

The moment I heard that phrase, something in me stopped. I realized how perfectly it captured what I’d been going through. It was uncomfortably accurate.

Early this year, a series of personal changes threw me into emotional and mental chaos. I was consumed by negative thoughts — intrusive, heavy, relentless — that spiraled into darker feelings I couldn’t seem to shake off. Eventually, even my body began to feel the weight of it all and my health began to falter.

That was when I realized something had to change.

I decided to do what I always do when life overwhelms me — research. I wanted to understand what the mind really is, what thoughts are, where they come from, and why they have so much power over us.

What I Learned About Thoughts

Thoughts, I discovered, are mental cognitions — the ideas, opinions, and beliefs that shape how we perceive ourselves and the world around us. They are the building blocks of our emotions and actions, and once believed, they can alter the entire texture of our reality.

Thinking itself comes from the mind — but what is the mind made of? Only thought. When no thought is present, the mind is silent. Without thought, there is no mind.

When the Mind Becomes the Master

Here’s where suffering begins.

Have you noticed how easy it is to think clearly when two people are debating — you can tell who’s being logical and who’s not? Yet when those same arguments start playing out in your own head, all logic disappears. Suddenly, every thought feels personal, urgent, true.

That’s because we mistake the voice in our head for who we are.

But that inner voice — the one that narrates, analyzes, criticizes, and worries — isn’t you. It only sounds like you. It’s your mind.

If you were your thoughts, you’d vanish each time a thought ended. But you don’t. You were here before a thought arose, and you remain after it passes. Thoughts, feelings, sensations — they come and go, but you — the one who observes them — remain constant.

That realization alone changes everything.

The Ocean of Thought

Once I understood that I wasn’t my thoughts, the next question was: Where do they come from?

The answer surprised me. The mind isn’t just a generator of thought; it’s also a receiver. We exist within what some call a great sea of mind — an invisible field of information that surrounds and permeates everything.

Just as sound waves travel through air, thought waves travel through this field. They move in all directions and resonate with similar frequencies. Strong thoughts — whether positive or negative — have the power to influence other minds that are “tuned” to the same vibration.

In this way, many of the thoughts that pass through our heads aren’t entirely ours. They are echoes — reflections of collective patterns, ancestral imprints, cultural beliefs — transmitted through the great mental ether.

This explained why my negative thinking had felt so contagious. Every time I entertained a dark thought, I was tuning myself to a collective frequency of negativity — and connecting with others vibrating on that same wavelength. The result was an endless feedback loop of heaviness and self-doubt.

Also, our overall mental attitude determines both the thoughts we receive and the ones we emit.

A confident, self-assured mind naturally resists negative thought waves, while a discouraged mind amplifies them. Like attracts like — our inner state shapes the mental reality we inhabit.

This is why two people can experience the same situation and feel entirely different about it. One sees possibility; the other sees defeat. They’re both responding not to the external event, but to the frequency their mind is tuned to.

We become what we consistently think and feel ourselves into being.

Breaking the Spell of Thought

So how do you stop suffering your mind?

For me, the shift came through three key practices: meditation, vibration, and listening well.

1. Meditation: Learning to Observe

I was introduced to Vipassana meditation — a practice of silent observation. You sit, focus on the breath, and simply observe whatever arises — thoughts, sensations, emotions — without judgment.

At first, I struggled. My mind resisted. But slowly, I began to notice something extraordinary: every thought, every emotion, every sensation — arises and passes away. Nothing stays.

This experience showed me that I am not the content of my mind; I am the awareness in which all content appears.

Now, when a negative thought arises, I ask myself, “Whose voice is this? Who am I listening to?” That question creates distance. I no longer fight my thoughts or try to suppress them — I just see them. Awareness itself disarms them.

You can’t be aware of a thought and fully believe it at the same time.

2. Changing Your Emotional Frequency

Thoughts and emotions are inseparable — they feed each other in a continuous loop. To receive lighter, more supportive thoughts, you must cultivate lighter emotions.

Every emotion has a frequency. Fear, envy, anger — low. Love, compassion, joy — high.

When you consciously choose higher-frequency emotions, you shift your entire state of being.

Forgiveness, gratitude, kindness — these are not just virtues; they are vibrational recalibrations. They change the energy running through you, and by doing so, they change the kind of thoughts you attract and the experiences you magnetize.

By choosing your thoughts and emotions consciously, you quite literally shape the quality of your inner and outer world.

3. Learning to Listen Well

These days, when negative thoughts visit me, I treat them like distant radio broadcasts — background noise from the collective mind. I decide whether to tune in or let the signal fade.

I’ve learned that analyzing or judging thoughts only strengthens their pull — like engaging with a post on social media, it tells the algorithm to send you more of the same.

Instead, I observe. I let them drift by like clouds across a vast sky.

This is what it means to “listen well.”

The goal isn’t to silence the mind or destroy it. It’s to see it clearly — to reclaim your rightful place as the awareness behind it.

The End of Suffering

Humanity has suffered too long under the tyranny of the mind. We’ve mistaken its chatter for truth, its restlessness for intelligence, its fear for wisdom.

But when you stop living from the mind and start living as awareness, life transforms. The noise softens. The weight lifts. And what remains is an effortless sense of peace — a lightness of being that no thought can disturb.

When you stop suffering your mind, you rediscover what’s been here all along — a quiet, conscious presence untouched by the storm of thought.

That, truly, is heaven on earth.

Cynthia A. Murungi

Hey there! Welcome to thehealseekers, a space created to expand women's consciousness in metaphysics, psychology, and self-development. I hope you find inspiration here!