The brilliant spiritual teacher, Ernest Holmes wrote in The Science of Mind that worry is the negative use of our imagination. Succinct and helpful.
Worry isn’t weakness and it isn’t a flaw in our character. It’s the power of our mind being used to envision what we don’t want, what we don’t like, and what we fear. The same imagination that can hold a vision of healing can hold a vision of disaster, and it works just as hard either way.
Here’s what helped me to see it correctly, though.
The negative use of our imagination is the experience of worry. It isn’t the cause. The cause of worry is placing our faith and trust in our own opinions and judgments, in our own discernment, rather than placing our faith and trust in Spirit.
That distinction matters, because it tells us where our work actually is.
If worry were caused by circumstances, we’d have to fix the circumstances. If worry is caused by where we’ve placed our trust, then the way to have peace instead of worry is simply this:
Have trust and faith in Spirit instead of your opinions.
A Course in Miracles gives us Lesson 34, “I could see peace instead of this.”
Not peace instead of that situation. Peace instead of the way we’re holding it in our mind.
The lesson goes on to tell us that “Peace of mind is clearly an internal matter.”
Internal. Not circumstantial. Which is wonderful news, because our circumstances aren’t taking instruction from us, and our minds can.
We’re not being asked to stop caring about the people we love. We’re being asked to stop rehearsing their ruin.
Every time we catch ourselves running the disaster reel, we can hand it over. “Higher Holy Spirit Self, take these thoughts out of my mind. I’d rather trust You than my own predictions.”
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Our imagination is a gift. It was never meant for us to use it against ourselves and others. That’s a habit we can break. Maybe it’s something to do some forgiveness around. We can forgive ourselves for imagining the worst and using the mind God gave us for self-destruction.
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