"Without a doubt, this past year was the most difficult I’ve experienced in my life. The woman I wanted to marry left me; I was in the middle of a career change; my uncle died; and my mother was diagnosed with cancer. I came to The Option Institute confused and searching for new ways to deal with everything that was happening.

I signed up for two programs at the Institute: Fast-Track Personal Change. It was two weeks of meditation and mindfulness unlike any therapy I’d experienced. When I was at The Option Institute there were absolutely no labels attached to me because of my problems, nor definitions nor diagnoses that concluded I had a problem.

The most beneficial aspect of the Institute’s program is the message that there are no right answers. The only right answers are the answers that you have for yourself. The atmosphere in the classroom was a kind of jovial otherworldliness – the camaraderie was amazing!

The Option Institute provided me with simple tools that helped me look at my life in a very new light. The most profound lesson I took from the program is the realization that there is always a choice. Once you understand the simple but valuable lesson – we can view events as a blessing or a curse – we can then make the internal choice of happiness, leaving the external choice not so difficult to make.

My experience at The Option Institute has been one of the best gifts I’ve given to myself. In a sense, it started me on a spiritual journey, a journey to become more human. My mother is still battling cancer, and I have chosen to see it as a blessing, to make each moment count and be present in each moment, both with her and the rest of my family.

I am doing incredibly well in a new career and am enjoying my single status. I’ve learned to let go of the past and concentrate on the good things in my life – there are only the infinite possibilities of the present for me. The ‘what ifs’ no longer exist.

Amazing things happen at The Option Institute!”

- Tim Suh, 34, Information Technology Consultant, Illinois