Letting Go of the Habit of Worry

When I wrote yesterday’s Spiritual Espresso, Getting Off the Guilt Train, my cat, Sattva was out in the neighborhood, as usual, but then he didn’t come home last night, and, in fact, went missing all day except for a brief period when I picked up his tracker a couple of blocks away.

Yesterday, I was talking about my dog, Bodhi, and now here I am today talking about Sattva.  When he was a young cat, and would disappear on me, and stay out late in the dead of winter, and I had to wait up for him or be concerned he’d get too cold, I sometimes would be having these imaginary conversations  with him, just like I wrote about with Bodhi. yesterday.

In my mind, I’d say things like, “If you think this is okay, you are dead wrong.  I don’t appreciate this.  After all I do for you, I can’t believe you would treat me this way.  You are losing all of your privileges and that’s on you.  You have proved yourself completely untrustworthy…” I was like a parent with a teenager staying out too late with friends I don’t trust.

Of course, at the time, just as with Bodhi, I knew what I was doing.  I wouldn’t really have said those things to someone who could hear what I was saying.  I was really speaking to myself and just releasing the energy for the very reason that I didn’t wish to ruminate on it – I just wished to get it out and done with and make myself laugh in the process.

I’ve learned the value of remembering to laugh at the challenges.  All day yesterday, I was watching for Sattva, checking the tracker, taking Bodhi with me to where he was last seen, talking to neighbors.

It’s been so helpful to me to put Spirit in charge, and to “let go and let God.’

Another helpful thing is, be mindful of whom you tell.  I have some close friends who are prone to worrying.  I didn’t tell them Sattva was missing.

Ernest Holmes, founder of the Science of Mind, said, worry is the negative use of the imagination.  Our mind is the mind of God and what we hold in our mind affect things.  That’s not just a spiritual truth, it’s also what every physicist knows and has the data that proves it.  The observer affects the outcome of the experiment every time.  Every moment of our life is a divine experiment.

In A Course in Miracles, we’re told, “You are much too tolerant of mind wandering, and are passively condoning your mind’s miscreations.”

Worry is mind wandering.  When we worry we feel mentally, emotionally and physically stressed.  That’s just the beginning of the miscreation.

Many of us have been trained to worry.

We’ve been taught that those who worry about us love us, but it’s not a sign of Love, it’s a sign of the fearful mind that has lost its way.

We can train ourselves to be vigilant only for God.

Throughout the day when I was concerned about Sattva, I stayed focused in the present moment and the belief that all was well, my mind wandered a bit here and there, but not for more than a moment.  I was mentally preparing to go to bed, to sleep well and know that I’d see him in the next day when he came walking up as though he’d only been gone for minutes.

I’m grateful and relieved, and I am also able to recognize that these experiences are part of my mind training to remember the truth and focus on that.  We’re eternal.  All of us.  All of life is a divine experiment and we can make it heavenly or hellish.  It’s a choice, and the choice is in every moment.

Learning to relax the mind is a skill we can master if we’re willing.

SATURDAY –  Free Forgiveness Workshop with me on Saturday, June 7 – Join me!  Let’s do this deep work and have a healing together.  Let’s lighten our load together.  Now’s the time!  Free sounds good, right?  Invite a friend!  Register now and I’ll see you then!  Click here now to register for FREE!

LATEST ACIM PODCAST EPISODE: my topic is Choosing Heaven on Earth. ACIM teaches us that we can choose heaven or hell – it’s our decision. In this week’s episode, I share how we can help ourselves out of the low vibration of guilt and shame and live at a higher vibration. It’s not natural for us to suffer.