I was recently asked why I often refer to my clients as ‘students,’ and why I talk about offering a ‘course,’ when most people see what I do as being more like ‘treatment’ or ‘counselling.’ These are good questions that help to illustrate the nature of what I do.
To begin with, it’s important that I note that I am not teaching anyone what I was taught, I am showing them what I saw. The point is to get you to see it too, because the principles that form that reality belong equally to all of us.
The fact that we share those principles is why, unlike traditional counselling, I’ll often use my own life when presenting examples. The ‘course’ isn’t top-down education where I have something that I give to others. It’s more like one candle lighting another. And I’m just a very active candle.
By using my own mistakes or challenges, I convey that when we grasp this understanding, we do not rid ourselves of suffering. Instead, we learn its place in our lives, and how it can come to be an aspect of existence that we can make peace with, and even benefit from.
The fact that we can achieve that state of mind is why I call it a ‘course.’ When the person realizes that they never had anything wrong with them, and that they were simply using their consciousness in unproductive ways, they are suddenly free.
Once someone has seen this truth for themselves, they are now like a snowball rolling down a hill. Just their movement through life will cause that snowball to build in size the further it rolls. They could still use me, but my students simply don’t need me as much once they can see the truth about how reality is formed.
I do have weekly life-coaching students that simply find the benefit is worth it. I have some business and sports students return for refreshers once a year. And some return when facing acute issues, like major decisions or major life events to cope with. But other than extreme situations, everyone learns to balance and manage their own moods and psychology.
Once nice thing is that, when those post course sessions do happen, they tend to accomplish a lot in very little time. We can start right away, speaking a common language, about the same shared ‘understanding.’
That familiarity means that even big problems can be dealt with quickly because we don’t have to fix them, the person only needs to re-realize something. Whenever we find whatever that something is, they’ll always realize after-the fact that they had the necessary skills to deal with the issue.
When people get stuck, the problem is usually that the people have been blinded by their ego’s stake in certain outcomes. Outcomes matter less when we’re leaving in a clear head-space.
Living with this understanding changes what matters to us. It changes what actions we think are appropriate, and it changes how we feel about others, ourselves, and life in general.
Fortunately, we will spend the rest of our lives getting better at accessing this wisdom. There is always headroom. That’s why it does each of us good to remember that during our difficult times, our higher, clearer self is always present and awaiting activation –just as soon as we give those better ideas the energy of our being.
peace, s
A serious childhood brain injury lead Scott to spend his entire life meditating on the concepts of thought, consciousness, reality and identity. It made others as strange to him as he was to them. When he realized people were confused by their own over-thinking, Scott began teaching others to understand reality. He is currently CBC Radio Active’s Wellness Columnist, as well as a writer, speaker and mindfulness instructor based in Edmonton, AB where he still finds it strange to write about himself in the third person.